Quick recap: A quasi-documentary about the lives and experiences of black gay men, as told through spoken word and personal stories.

also a helpful tutorial for snapping properly like a diva!

Fun (?) fact: Tongues Untied originally ran on PBS, and was therefore partially funded by the government. As expected, this did not go over very well for conservatives, who called this ‘pornographic art’, which I think sounds kind of nice.

My thoughts: I think this movie, above all others really took me out of my element and made me see a subset of America I had not thought deeply about before: the black gay male. Seeing as I am neither black, nor gay, nor male, I wasn’t too sure how I would react to the documentary, but it ended up being the perfect example of why we watch movies: to experience something new as well as gain empathy for others.

Tongues Untied is a documentary in the sense that it is true experiences of the men involved, but there are no interviews or narration. Instead, most of the words are poems from Marlon Riggs, the director of the film who also appears on screen detailing his experience growing up gay and black. The rhythm of the movie was a little hard to get into at first, mostly because I’m not too familiar with poetry. I warmed up very fast to the concept once I stopped focusing on the words and instead focused on the people and emotions being showcased.

I’m no expert in late 80’s black gay culture, but Riggs seemed to show a full spectrum of men: drag queens, old guys, young guys, muscular guys, ‘sissies’ (a great discussion of this word occurs during a scene when a bunch of men are eating and talking about what they have been called). I loved that Riggs didn’t focus on the names of the men in the documentary because it made it feel like this could be anyone in the role, detailing their situations. The anonymity ended up making the movie feel more personal to me, as if I would recognize someone I knew at any moment.

The most powerful point of the film comes at the end, as the faces of young gay black men who have died of AIDS appear on screen. The theme of silence pops up throughout the poems in Tongues Untied, and refers to the silence men go through in hiding a part of their identity. Reading the obituaries in the film made me aware of how many men were forever silenced by the disease. 4 years after completing this film, Marlon Riggs himself succumbed to the AIDS virus.

Final review: 5/5. Never in a million years would I have watched this on my own, but I am so glad I did.

Up next: Close-Up

Quick recap: This documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their worldwide tour in 1969, although the focus is mainly on the tragedy at the Altamont Speedway December of that year.

The post will be Mick Jagger heavy. Deal with it.

Fun (?) fact: Meredith Hunter, the guy who was stabbed by the Hell’s Angels, was not actually murdered during ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ but instead ‘Under My Thumb’.

My thoughts: Mick. Jagger.  Oh my god, Mick Jagger. I know that the documentary touched on a few complex issues in the music world, but let’s just sit for a minute and appreciate Mick Jagger. Go ahead. Take a minute. I’ll be right here.

Good? Ok. So I’ve never been a big Rolling Stones fan, although I certainly appreciate their talent and influence on virtually every rock band in existence. I think the reason I never got into them is because I’ve only heard their biggest hits on classic rock stations and it never occurred to me just how important they were/are. After watching Gimme Shelter, I get it. What’s funny about that is that this isn’t the sort of music documentary that most people are familiar with: a lighthearted look at a hard working group who spend long days on the road, meet with thousands of fans and still manage to find time to goof off.* Gimme Shelter is a critical look at The Stones and their decision to hire Hell’s Angels to protect them as well as the counter culture movement in general.

* The only music documentary I am familiar with. Unfortunately, not on this list.

My take on the whole thing is that everyone had a hand in this and yet who’s really to blame? Starting with the Rolling Sones, when it was announced they would be doing a free concert at a speedway, I knew things wouldn’t end well. They were one of the biggest groups at the time, if not the biggest. Practically the entire country would try to come to this. Which leads to their decision to use the Hell’s Angels to protect them. I read that there is a Hell’s Angels in Britain that the Stones used before, but they were much less violent. It seems that they didn’t know what they were getting into until it started getting out of hand. Which leads to the audience’s part in all of this. There were over 300,000 people in attendance that night and I would guess that most there were on something. People showed up expecting a Woodstock but instead it turned ugly and violent. Meredith Hunter’s death is incredibly sad, but as it was later noted, he had pulled out a gun and one of the Hell’s Angels stabbed him in self-defense. It’s hard to say how this all could’ve been prevented except to maybe have not had the concert at all.

It’s powerful enough to see the crowd start to get out of hand and even more powerful to actually watch as the death occurs. The Stones keep playing during all of this although they do say at some point that a doctor is needed. I imagine that stopping the concert at this point would’ve been useless because that would’ve probably started a riot. So it isn’t until the end of the movie that we see The Stones sitting and watching the footage of the concert and feeling the weight of their consequences. And it isn’t even that they are to blame necessarily, but that there are consequences to everything, especially with  such explosive fame as theirs.

Final review: 4/5. A little slow at first but very powerful at the end.

Up next: The Burmese Harp