Essex Hemphill

Made, in director Marlon Riggs’s own words, to “shatter the nation’s brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference,” this radical blend of documentary and performance defies the stigmas surrounding Black gay sexuality in the belief that, as long as shame prevails, liberation cannot be possible. Through music and dance, words and poetry by such pathbreaking writers as Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam—and by turns candid, humorous, and heartbreaking interviews with queer African American men—Tongues Untied gives voice to what it means to live as an outsider in both a Black community rife with homophobia and a largely white gay subculture poisoned by racism. A lightning rod in the culture wars of the 1980s that incited a right-wing furor over public funding for the arts, the film has lost none of its life-affirming resonance.

55 min.

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, Paris Is Burning offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion “houses,” from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women—including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza—Paris Is Burning brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community.

76 min.

The wry, incisive debut feature by Cheryl Dunye gave cinema something bracingly new and groundbreaking: a vibrant representation of Black lesbian identity by a Black lesbian filmmaker. Dunye stars as Cheryl, a video-store clerk and aspiring director whose interest in forgotten Black actresses leads her to investigate an obscure 1930s performer known as the Watermelon Woman, whose story proves to have surprising resonances with Cheryl’s own life as she navigates a new relationship with a white girlfriend (Guinevere Turner). Balancing breezy romantic comedy with a serious inquiry into the history of Black and queer women in Hollywood, The Watermelon Woman slyly rewrites long-standing constructions of race and sexuality on-screen, introducing an important voice in American cinema.

84 min.

“This masterpiece by local filmmaker Michelle Parkerson should be required viewing for all LGBTQ people living in the District—and beyond. A powerful, deeply felt 35-minute documentary, Fierceness Served charts the history of the Enikalley Coffeehouse, a carriage house in Northeast DC that served as a cultural and activism touchstone for the Black LGBTQ community in the ’80s and ’90s. Illuminating and enriching, the film overflows with rich grace notes, such as a stroll taken through the space as it exists today by two former patrons. As though working a cinematic loom, Parkerson expertly weaves talking head recollections—bright, funny, poignant—with archival photographs and rare footage of Coffeehouse performances...The most arresting moments in Fierceness Served, however, are its stylized poetry breaks, in which performers recite works by esteemed Enikalley alumni, including Essex Hemphill...The film’s most affecting moment arrives unexpectedly, during the final credits, in which Parkerson includes a massive list of Coffeehouse patrons lost to HIV/AIDS. The sense of cultural loss makes for a heartbreaking and profound coda.” —RS / Metro Weekly / Oct 22, 2022

35 min.