"Tongues Untied" film viewing notes

I really liked this film!
In the beginning, cool use of sound collage, using the spoken word rhythm element.
-Poetry, words, voices of characters over the b-roll used to introduce them.
-The sesame streetesque "snap lesson," this was a great way to show you black gay male culture in a light, funny way. Growing up watching Sesame Street I have a special fondness for this style of sharing information.
-Marlon Riggs chooses to follow the story of himself and his constituency in a very controlled/manufactured way, yet still making it a documentary. It has a different flavor to watch someone work in this model instead of the anthropological documentary I am used to seeing.
-I like Riggs' use of closeups on lips to show rhythm and make sound for the film. We are having a discussion with lips and body parts as much as people.
-I really liked the poetry of Essex Hemphill, this thread running through the film kept me engaged and told the story of these people in a beautiful as well as educational way. Through poetry I learned the different facets of oppression in the black gay male community.
and very "Silence is my cloak, it smothers, Silence is my sword, it stabs." In this poem the character is expressing how black gay men spend most of there lives in silence torn between there identities isolated.
"My body contains as much anger as water."
"Are you more black or gay? its like saying are you more your right testicle or you left?
"Part your eyelids, resounding refrain of two grown men making love"
-In the film there is an inside conversation and an outside conversation similar to TQ. I want to study this film more to get a sense of how they play this neutral ground.
- I learned that as a black gay man you learn many different cultures and to speak the language of all different groups. The white man language, the black man language, the gay language and the secret black gay man language.
This film was beautifully crafted and a cool experimental documentary to watch.