No Regrets: A Celebration of Marlon Riggs

September 19–November 25, 2019

In his lucid and provocative video essays, Marlon Riggs grappled with African American culture, representation, and identity. This retrospective presents all of his films, in dialogue with works by other filmmakers.

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  • Tongues Untied

  • Black Is . . . Black Ain't

  • Affirmations

  • Cheryl Dunye: The Watermelon Woman

  • Thomas Allen Harris: Vintage: Families of Value

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Tongues Untied

    • Monday, November 25 6:30 PM
    Marlon Riggs
    United States, 1989

    Free Admission!

    This screening is presented as part of Arts + Design Mondays. Tongues Untied also screens Wednesday, October 23 (with Elena Gross and Vivian Kleiman in conversation; regular admission prices apply).

    Riggs’s riveting combination of interviews, performance, stock footage, autobiography, poetry, and dance reveals the revolutionary potential of black men loving black men.

    Ken Light, Darieck B. Scott, and Leila Weefur in Conversation

  • Vintage: Families of Value

    • Friday, November 22 7 PM
    Thomas Allen Harris
    United States, 1995

    Thomas Allen Harris explores the intersections of race, family, and sexuality in this pioneering essay film, which focuses on three groups of queer black siblings, including the director and his brother.

    Jesse Hawthorne Ficks and Marvin K. White in Conversation

  • The Watermelon Woman

    • Saturday, November 2 8 PM
    Cheryl Dunye
    United States, 1996

    Cheryl Dunye’s first feature, on a lesbian video-store clerk and would-be filmmaker who becomes obsessed with the career of an early “race film” star, is “funky screwball comedy in the key of queer” (B. Ruby Rich).

  • Ethnic Notions

    • Friday, November 1 4 PM
    Marlon Riggs
    United States, 1986

    Riggs interrogates how material culture perpetuates racial stereotypes in this powerful and unblinking work. Followed by Color Adjustment, in which Riggs extends his examination to network television.

    Introduction by Herman S. Gray

  • Reflections and Affirmations: Marlon Riggs and Others

    • Friday, October 25 4 PM

    This program puts the work of Marlon Riggs in conversation with that of other artists reflecting on, affirming, and celebrating their identities, including Julie Dash, Isaac Julien, Thomas Allen Harris, and Brontez Purnell.

    Brontez Purnell in Person

  • Tongues Untied

    • Wednesday, October 23 7 PM
    Marlon Riggs
    United States, 1989
    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    Tongues Untied is also presented in a free screening on Monday, November 25 (with Ken Light, Darieck B. Scott, and Leila Weefur in conversation).

    Riggs’s riveting combination of interviews, performance, stock footage, autobiography, poetry, and dance reveals the revolutionary potential of black men loving black men. With Riggs’s short Anthem.

    Introduction by Elena Gross; Vivian Kleiman in Conversation

  • Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

    • Friday, October 18 7 PM
    Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Veronica Selver, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix
    United States, 1977

    Perhaps the first feature-length documentary on gay and lesbian identity, and still relevant today, this film features interviews with a diverse group of individuals, including poet Elsa Gidlow, activist Sally Gearhart, inventor John Burnside, civil rights leader Harry Hay, and filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky.

    Mariposa Film Group Members in Person

  • Long Train Running: A History of the Oakland Blues

    • Thursday, September 26 7 PM
    Marlon Riggs, Peter Webster
    United States, 1981

    Riggs and Peter Webster’s thesis project reflects on the heyday of Oakland blues in the late 1940s and ’50s, chronicling the city’s vibrant past while revealing an uncertain present. With Karen Everett’s profile of Riggs, I Shall Not Be Removed.

    Introduction by Ashley Omoma; Karen Everett in Person

  • Black Is . . . Black Ain’t

    • Thursday, September 19 7 PM
    Marlon Riggs
    United States, 1995

    BAMPFA Collection

    Riggs’s richly textured exploration of black American identity was his final work, completed by colleagues after his death. It features appearances by Angela Davis, bell hooks, Cornel West, Essex Hemphill, and Bill T. Jones, among other luminaries.

    Nicole Atkinson Roach, Ryanaustin Dennis, and Chika Okoye in Conversation