Marlon Riggs
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Marlon Riggs | |
---|---|
Born | Marlon Troy Riggs February 3, 1957 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
Died | April 5, 1994 Oakland, California, U.S. | (aged 37)
Cause of death | Complications from AIDS |
Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, educator |
Partner | Jack Vincent |
Marlon Troy Riggs (February 3, 1957 – April 5, 1994) was a black gay filmmaker, educator, poet, and activist. He produced, wrote, and directed several
Early life
Riggs was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 3, 1957. He was a child of civilian employees of the military and spent a great deal of his childhood traveling. He lived in Texas and Georgia before moving to West Germany at the age of 11 with his family. He was the son of Jean (mother) and Alvin Riggs (father) and also had a sibling named Sascha.[3][4]
Later in his life, Riggs recalled the ostracism and name-calling that he experienced at
Riggs excelled at
While a student at Harvard, Riggs realized that he was gay.[6] Because there were no courses that supported the study of homosexuality, he petitioned the History Department and received approval to pursue independent study of the portrayal of "male homosexuality in American fiction and poetry".[6] As he began studying the history of American racism and homophobia, Riggs became interested in communicating his ideas about these subjects through film.
After working for a local television station in Texas for about a year, he moved to
Film career
After finishing graduate school, Riggs began working on many independent documentary productions in the Bay Area. He assisted documentary directors and producers initially as an assistant editor and later as a post-production supervisor or editor on documentaries about the American
In 1987, he completed his first professional feature documentary Ethnic Notions.[1] An independently produced documentary, the film was inspired by an exhibit of black memorabilia at the Berkeley Art Center of black stereotypes from the collection of Jan Faulkner. The film received technical support (online editing) from KQED, a public television station in San Francisco, and was shown on public television stations throughout the United States.[7] In Ethnic Notions, Riggs sought to explore widespread and persistent stereotypes of African Americans – images of ugly, savage brutes and happy servants – in American popular culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Edited by Debbie Hoffmann, the film uses voice-over narration provided by African-American actress Esther Rolle in explaining striking film footage and historical stills which expose the blatant racism of the era immediately following the Civil War. The documentary also presents a set of contemporary interviews with historians George Fredrickson and Lawrence Levine, the cultural critic Barbara Christian, folklorist Patricia Turner, and black memorabilia collector Jan Faulkner, who discuss the consequences of historical African-American stereotypes.[citation needed]
In 1989, Riggs completed the landmark experimental documentary film
In 1988, while working both on Color Adjustment and Tongues Untied, Riggs was diagnosed with HIV after undergoing treatment for near-fatal kidney failure at a hospital in Germany.[5] Despite his deteriorating health, he decided to continue to teach at Berkeley and make documentaries.
In the short 1990 piece Affirmations, Riggs explored the African-American males' sexuality and relationship with the African-American community at large. Some of the men expressed the lack of acceptance within the African-American community and the divide their sexual orientation caused. In 1991, Riggs directed and produced Anthem, a short documentary about African-American male sexuality.[citation needed]
In 1991, Riggs founded Signifyin' Works, a non-profit production company that produces films about African-American history and culture.[citation needed]
The 1992 documentary Color Adjustment was Riggs's second film shown on P.O.V.,[9] focusing on the representation of African Americans in primetime television from Amos 'n' Andy to The Cosby Show. The film was produced with Vivian Kleiman, edited by Debbie Hoffmann and narrated by the actress Ruby Dee. It includes an original music score by Mary Watkins.[citation needed]
In 1992, Riggs directed the film Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret), in which five black gay men who are HIV-positive discuss how they are battling the double stigmas surrounding their infection and homosexuality. The series was screened on World AIDS Day and Day Without Art. It included the participation of Phil Zwickler, David Wojnarowicz, Ellen Spiro, Vivian Kleiman and others.[citation needed]
In 1993, Riggs received an
Shortly after completing Color Adjustment, Riggs began work on what was to be his final film, Black Is...Black Ain't, but he died at the age of 37 from complications caused by
It is interesting to note that all of his documentaries originated in video and transferred to film for public screenings at theaters, festivals and museums.
Riggs also wrote poetry, and Tongues Untied contains several of his poems about his life experiences as a black gay man.[citation needed]
Writings
Riggs's writings were published during the late 1980s and early 1990s in various art and literary journals such as Black American Literature Forum,
In his essay "Black Macho Revisited: Reflections of a SNAP! Queen," Riggs discusses how representations of black gay men in the United States have been used to shape Americans' conceptions of race and sexuality. He argues that Americans' emphasis on the "black macho" figure – the warrior model of black masculinity based on a mythologized view of
Themes and style
Riggs's films deal with representations of race and sexuality in the United States. Riggs was critical of American racism and homophobia. He used his films to show positive images of African-American culture as well as those of physical and emotional love between black men in order to challenge representations of African Americans and black gay men in popular culture.[5]
As a graduate student at Berkeley, Riggs was educated in journalism and conventional documentary filmmaking, which stresses objectivity and employing an academic stance. However his film style quickly evolved to be rather personal and emotional.
Awards and recognition
Riggs's documentaries have received much critical acclaim. Riggs received a national
In 1992, Riggs was awarded the Maya Daren Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Riggs received the Frameline Award from the
In 1993, Riggs received an Honorary Doctorate from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.[citation needed]
There is a section of a subsidized housing unit named The Marlon Riggs Apartments/Vernon Street located in Oakland, California. In 1996, a plaque with a picture of Marlon was hung inside of the building's lobby area. At the time, the housing unit was the East Bay's first building constructed for low-income people with HIV/AIDS.[13]
In 1996, two years after Riggs's death, Karen Everett made a biographical documentary about him, titled I Shall Not Be Removed: The Life of Marlon Riggs.[14]
In 2006, Riggs was inducted into the NLGJA LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame.[15]
In 2014, Signifyin' Works challenged the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism to match a donation of $100,000 and create the "Marlon T. Riggs Fellowship in Documentary Filmmaking." It was the first fellowship named for a documentary filmmaker at a university in the United States.[8] That endowment reached $500,000 thanks to the support of the Ford Foundation and other donors.
In 2018, Signifyin' Works received a grant from the Ford Foundation in support of "Tongues Untied@30," a year-long series of global screenings to honor the 30th anniversary of the release of Tongues Untied in 1989. Signifyin' Works President Vivian Kleiman and Brooklyn Academy of Music film curator Ashley Clark collaborated to launch the year with a retrospective Race, Sex & Cinema: The World of Marlon Riggs.[16]
Other screenings included: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Atlanta, London, Paris, Bogota, Istanbul, Mumbai, and beyond. In addition, the 78th Annual Peabody Awards recognized Riggs and Tongues Untied with a tribute presented by Billy Porter, writer and star performer of the FX Peabody Award-winning series, "Pose".
In 2022 Tongues Untied was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Controversy
Prior to a further release to the public on national television after its run in festivals, Riggs's production Tongues Untied triggered a national controversy surrounding the airing of the video on American public television stations. Along with his own funds, Riggs had financed the documentary with a $5,000 grant from the Western States Regional Arts Fund, a re-granting agency funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency that provides funding and support for visual, literary, and performing artists. The film received much contention due to its depiction of two men kissing.[11][17]
News of the film's airing sparked a national debate about whether or not it is appropriate for the federal government to fund artistic creations that offended some.[9] Artists stressed their basic right of free speech, of representation on public airwaves, and vehemently opposed censorship of their art. However, several right-wing United States government policymakers and many conservative groups were against using taxpayer money to fund what they claimed were repulsive artistic works.[18]
In the 1992 Republican presidential primaries, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan cited Tongues Untied as an example of how President George H. W. Bush was investing "our tax dollars in pornographic and blasphemous art." Buchanan released an anti-Bush television advertisement for his campaign using re-edited clips from Tongues Untied. The ad was removed from television channels after Riggs successfully demonstrated Buchanan's copyright infringement.
Reverend
Riggs defended Tongues Untied for its ability to "shatter this nation's brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference." In his defense, Riggs claimed that "implicit in the much overworked rhetoric about "community standards" is the assumption of only one central community and only one overarching cultural standard to which television programming must necessarily appeal."[19]
Death
Marlon Riggs died in his home on April 5, 1994. Tom Leonard, then acting dean of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, stated that the cause of death was due to complications from AIDS.[3]
Popular culture
Episode six of the second season of Pose ends with a quote by Riggs.[20]
Filmography as director
- Long Train Running: A History of the Oakland Blues (1981, short)
- Ethnic Notions (1986)
- Tongues Untied (1989) (later aired on POV in 1991)
- Affirmations (1990, short)
- Anthem (1991 short)
- Color Adjustment (1992) (later aired on POV in 1992)
- Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien(No Regret) (1993, short)
- Boys' Shorts: The New Queer Cinema (1993, co-directed with Mark Christopher, Stephen Cummins, Laurie Lynd, Michael Mayson, and Chris Newby)
- Black is... Black Ain't(1994)
References
- ^ a b see California Newsreel Archived 2011-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Marlon Riggs archive, including papers, videos, and personal items, 1957-1994 in SearchWorks catalog. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
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ignored (help) - ^ a b c "Marlon Riggs Dies; Film Maker Was 37". The New York Times. The Associated Press. April 6, 1994. Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d Simmons, Ron. "Tongues Untied: An Interview with Marlon Riggs." Brother to Brother: Collected Writings by Black Gay Men. Ed. Essex Hemphill. Los Angeles: Alyson Publications, Inc., 1991. 189-199. Print.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56279-051-6.
- ^ – via EBSCO.
- ^ a b Gateward, Frances. "Riggs, Marlon." Film Reference. Advameg, Inc., 2011. 27 January 2011. Web.
- ^ a b "The Marlon T. Riggs Fellowships". UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
- ^ a b c Mills, David. "The Director with Tongue Untied; Marlon Riggs, A Filmmaker Who Lives Controversy." Washington Post 15 June 1992. Print.
- ^ "We pay tribute to Professor and filmmaker MARLON RIGGS, who died Tuesday". NPR. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
- ^ a b c d e Deane, Pamela S. "Riggs, Marlon: U.S. Filmmaker." The Museum of Broadcast Communications. MBC, 2011. 27 January 2011. Web.
- ^ Riggs, Marlon. "Black Macho Revisited: Reflections of a SNAP! Queen." Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing, 1979 to the Present. Ed. E. Lynn Harris. New York: Avalon Publishing Group, Inc., 2005. 151-157. Print.
- ^ Lee, Henry K. (March 23, 1996). "Oakland Housing Complex Opens / East Bay's first affordable units for people with AIDS". SFGate. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
- ^ "California Newsreel - I SHALL NOT BE REMOVED: THE LIFE OF MARLON RIGGS". newsreel.org. Retrieved 2021-09-13.
- ^ "NLGJA Hall of Fame - NLGJA". Retrieved 2019-11-07.
- ^ Alm, David. "Marlon Riggs, Icon Of Queer And Black Cinema, Celebrated In Brooklyn". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ Goodman, Walter (July 15, 1991). "Review/Television; Growing Up Black and Homosexual in America". The New York Times.
- ^ Riggs, Marlon. "Tongues Re-Tied." Resolutions: Contemporary Video Practices. Ed. Michael Renov and Erika Suderburg. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. 185-188. Print.
- ^ Morillo, Rachell (August 23, 2019). "Pose Is a Much-Needed Ode to Legacy in the Black and Latinx LGBTQ Community". Hyperallergic. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
External links
- Marlon Riggs at IMDb
- Marlon Riggs at AllMovie
- Marlon Riggs at the Video Data Bank
- Marlon Riggs Critical Resource Page at California Newsreel