Marlon Riggs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marlon Riggs
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Marlon Troy Riggs
February 3, 1957 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
|
| Died | April 5, 1994 (aged 37) Oakland, California, U.S.
|
| Cause of death | Complications from AIDS |
| Occupation | Filmmaker, educator |
| Partner(s) | Jack Vincent |
Marlon Troy Riggs (February 3, 1957 – April 5, 1994) was an important Black filmmaker, teacher, poet, and activist. He created many documentary films. Some of his famous works include Ethnic Notions, Tongues Untied, Color Adjustment, and Black Is...Black Ain't. His films explored how race and identity were shown in the United States, both in the past and present. His collection of work is kept at Stanford University Libraries.
Contents
Marlon Riggs' Early Life
Riggs was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 3, 1957. His parents worked for the military, so he moved around a lot as a child. He lived in Texas and Georgia. When he was 11, his family moved to West Germany. His mother was Jean, and his father was Alvin Riggs. He also had a sibling named Sascha.
Riggs remembered feeling left out and being called names at Hephzibah Junior High School in Hephzibah, Georgia. He felt alone at school. He said, "I was caught between these two worlds where the whites hated me and the blacks disparaged me. It was so painful."
Riggs did very well at Nurnberg American High School. He played football and ran track. He was even chosen as President of the Varsity Club when he was only a sophomore. He also performed a special dance in a school talent show. It showed the experiences of American slaves from Africa through their freedom. From 1973 to 1974, Riggs went to Ansbach American High School in Katterbach, Germany. He was elected student body president at this school for military families.
In 1974, Riggs came back to the United States for college. He studied history at Harvard University. He graduated with high honors in 1978. While at Harvard, Riggs became very interested in how identity and racism were shown in stories and poems. He wanted to share his ideas about these topics through films.
After working at a TV station in Texas for about a year, he moved to Oakland, California. He lived there for 15 years with his partner, Jack Vincent. Riggs went to graduate school and earned his master's degree in journalism in 1981. He specialized in documentary film at the University of California, Berkeley. For his master's project, he helped create Long Train Running: The Story of the Oakland Blues. This video was about the history of blues music in Oakland, California.
Marlon Riggs' Film Career
After finishing graduate school, Riggs started working on many independent documentary films in the Bay Area. He helped other directors and producers. He worked as an assistant editor and later as a supervisor for film editing. He also edited documentaries about the American arms race, Nicaragua, Central America, and disability rights. Riggs was very good with video technology. He was an online editor for a video company called Espresso Productions.
In 1987, Riggs became a part-time teacher at the Graduate School of Journalism at Berkeley. He taught documentary filmmaking. He became the youngest tenured professor there. This means he earned a permanent teaching position.
Exploring Stereotypes in Ethnic Notions
In 1987, Riggs finished his first major documentary film, Ethnic Notions. This film was inspired by an art show of Black memorabilia. It showed old Black stereotypes from a collection by Jan Faulkner. The film got help from KQED, a public television station in San Francisco. It was shown on public TV stations across the United States.
In Ethnic Notions, Riggs wanted to explore common and lasting stereotypes of Black people. These included images of angry people and happy servants. These images were found in American popular culture in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The film used a narrator, actress Esther Rolle, to explain old film clips and historical pictures. These showed the clear racism after the Civil War. The documentary also included interviews with historians and collectors. They talked about the effects of these old African-American stereotypes.
Tongues Untied and Its Impact
In 1989, Marlon finished the important experimental documentary film Tongues Untied. This film was shown on national PBS as part of the TV series P.O.V. The main voices in Tongues Untied were Riggs himself, and poets Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam. This film caused some political debate after it was released.
In 1988, while working on Color Adjustment and Tongues Untied, Riggs was diagnosed with HIV. This happened after he was treated for serious kidney failure in a German hospital. Even though his health was getting worse, Riggs decided to keep teaching at Berkeley and making documentaries.
Founding Signifyin' Works
In 1991, Marlon started Signifyin' Works. This was a non-profit company that made films about African-American history and culture.
Color Adjustment and Television History
The 1992 documentary Color Adjustment was Riggs's second film shown on the PBS series P.O.V. This film looked at how African Americans were shown on prime-time television. It covered shows from "Amos 'n' Andy" to "The Cosby Show." The film was produced with Vivian Kleiman and narrated by actress Ruby Dee. It also had original music by Mary Watkins.
No Regret and AIDS Awareness
In 1992, Riggs directed the film Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret). In this film, five Black men who had HIV talked about dealing with the challenges of their infection. The film was shown on World AIDS Day and Day Without Art.
In 1993, Riggs received an honorary doctorate from the California College of Arts and Crafts. In the same year, Riggs's short film Anthem was part of a collection of short films called Boys' Shorts: The New Queer Cinema.
Final Film: Black Is...Black Ain't
Soon after finishing Color Adjustment, Riggs started working on his last film, Black Is...Black Ain't. However, he passed away at age 37 from complications caused by AIDS on April 5, 1994, before he could finish it. The film was completed after his death by Nicole Atkinson and Christiane Badgley. They worked under the guidance of the Signifyin' Works board of directors.
Riggs also wrote poetry. His film Tongues Untied includes some of his poems about his life experiences as a Black man.
Marlon Riggs' Writings
Riggs's writings were published in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They appeared in different art and literature magazines. Some of these were Black American Literature Forum, Art Journal, and High Performance. His writings were also in books like Brother to Brother: Collected Writings by Black Men.
In one of his essays, "Black Macho Revisited," Riggs talked about the idea of the "black macho" figure. This idea, based on a strong warrior image of Black masculinity, often left out Black men who were different. He argued that this made it harder for some Black men to feel accepted in the African-American community.
Themes and Style in Riggs' Work
Riggs often spoke out against racism and prejudice in America. He used his films to show positive images of African-American culture. He also showed loving relationships between Black men. His goal was to challenge the way African Americans and Black men were shown in popular culture.
When Riggs was a student at Berkeley, he learned about traditional journalism and documentary filmmaking. This style usually focuses on being objective and academic. However, his own film style quickly became very personal and emotional.
Awards and Recognition for Marlon Riggs
Riggs's documentaries received many awards and much praise. Riggs won a national Emmy Award in 1987 for Ethnic Notions. Tongues Untied received the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival. The film was also recognized by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Documentary Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
In 1992, Riggs was given the Maya Daren Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Also, Color Adjustment won the important George Foster Peabody Award and the Erik Barnouw Award. It also won the International Documentary Association Outstanding Achievement Award. The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. "Color Adjustment" was nominated for a national Emmy Award for its excellent research.
Riggs received the Frameline Award from the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival for his film Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret). Black Is...Black Ain't won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It was also praised by the Sundance Film Festival.
In 1993, Riggs received an Honorary Doctorate from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.
There is a part of a housing complex in Oakland, California, named The Marlon Riggs Apartments/Vernon Street. In 1996, a plaque with Marlon's picture was placed in the building's lobby. At that time, this housing unit was the first building built for low-income people with HIV/AIDS.
In 1996, two years after Riggs passed away, Karen Everett made a documentary about him. It was called I Shall Not Be Removed: The Life of Marlon Riggs.
In 2006, Riggs was added to the NLGJA LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame.
In 2014, Signifyin' Works challenged the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism. They asked them to match a $100,000 donation to create the "Marlon T. Riggs Fellowship in Documentary Filmmaking." This was the first fellowship named after a documentary filmmaker at a university in the United States. That fund grew to $500,000 with help from the Ford Foundation and other donors.
In 2018, Signifyin' Works received a grant from the Ford Foundation. This was to support "Tongues Untied@30." This was a year-long series of film showings around the world. It honored the 30th anniversary of Tongues Untied in 1989. The 78th Annual Peabody Awards also honored Riggs and Tongues Untied with a special tribute.
Marlon Riggs' Death
Marlon Riggs passed away at his home on April 5, 1994. Tom Leonard, who was the acting dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism at the time, said that his death was due to complications from AIDS.
Popular Culture References
Episode 6 of the second season of FX's TV show Pose ends with a quote by Marlon Riggs.
