Watched this again the other day, it’s just as important a film now as when Marlon Riggs made it. I was vaguely thinking about starting some kind of letter-writing campaign to the distributor to encourage them to release it on DVD, but it turns out an enhanced home DVD version is scheduled for release next year. Kudos to Frameline, although I hope they charge a whole lot less for it than they do for the educational versions!

The scene in which Marlon Riggs does an accelerating montage of the obituaries of black gay men who had died of AIDS at the time the documentary was being made (1988/9) is chilling and incredibly depressing; Marlon passed away in 1994, Essex Hemphill a year later. Although new treatments that became available in the late 90s have helped reduce what seemed like endless deaths, a five-city US survey in 2005 found that 46% of black gay men tested positive, just a horrifying number (and one that the recently formed National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition is trying to do something about). The tragic loss of the incredible Willie Ninja last year was a horrible reminder that this is a crisis that is far from over. The ability of mainstream America to turn a blind eye to it is, to me, genocide by neglect.

This screenshot is from the film’s footage of Willie Ninja vogueing fiercely on the NYC streets.