Black Is… Black Ain’t

Today, Nov 19

7:00 pm INTRO

Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights (meaning arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating, the movie starts after midnite)!

Introduced by writer Ricky Tucker

Director: Marlon Riggs Run Time: 87 min. Format: DCP Rating: NR Release Year: 1994

African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.

Ricky Tucker is a writer, educator, and culture critic based in NYC. His work explores the imprints of art, culture, and memory on narrative, and the absurdity of most fleeting moments. He has written for the Paris Review, Lithub, Mixmag, New York Mag, and Public Seminar, among others, and his insights on Queer and Black performance have been featured in Vogue, TIME, I-D, on NPR and more. His L.A. Times best-selling debut, And the Category Is…Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community (Beacon Press) was one of Pitchfork’s 15 Best Music Books of 2022. Tucker is currently an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute and The New School, and producing a documentary on the impact of Marlon Riggs’ seminal masterpiece, Tongues Untitled. His next forthcoming book will be on Mary J. Blige’s debut album, What’s the 411, a 2024 selection for Bloomsbury’s acclaimed 33 1//3 series.

90s DOCS