The late Emmy^® and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Marlon Riggs established a reputation for his insightful and controversial films that confront racism and homophobia. Riggs’s first major work, Ethnic Notions (1987), received a National Emmy^® Award. Riggs went on to produce, direct, and edit the video documentary Tongues Untied (1989). This controversial but internationally acclaimed program was awarded Best Experimental Video at the San Francisco International Film Festival and it also won prominent awards from the Berlin International Film Festival and the American Film Institute. Riggs then produced and directed the award-winning Affirmations (1990), Anthem (1991), Color Adjustment (1991), and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (1992).

On April 5, 1994, Marlon Riggs died of complications due to AIDS. At the time, he was in the process of completing what became his final film. BLACK IS… BLACK AIN’T, a feature-length exploration of African American identity, was finished by his production team seven months after his death. It won the Filmmakers Trophy for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival as well as the Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival.

MARLON RIGGS – Director