Document Marlon Riggs Shorts
Sat 22 October 2016
Marlon Riggs
Affirmations (Marlon Riggs | USA | 1990 | 10m)
Anthem (Marlon Riggs | USA | 1991 | 9m)
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (Marlon Riggs | USA | 1993 | 38m)
Affirmations is an exploration of Black gay male desires and dreams, starting with an affectionate, humorous confessional and moving on to a wish for empowerment and incorporation.
Anthem is Marlon Riggs' experimental music video politicizing the homoeroticism of African-American men. With images - sensual, sexual and defiant - and words intended to provoke, Anthem reasserts the "self-evident right" to life and liberty in an era of pervasive anti-gay, anti-Black backlash and hysterical cultural repression.
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) features a series of interviews with HIV-positive black men. Through music, poetry and quiet - at times chilling - self-disclosure, five seropositive black, gay men speak of their individual confrontations with AIDS, illuminating the difficult journey African-American men make in coping with the personal and social devastation of the epidemic.
This screening will be introduced by Conal McStravick, a London-based artist with a research interest in AIDS crisis video and video activism.
