Talking Heads’ ‘Stop Making Sense’ added to National Film Registry

Talking Heads‘ legendary concert film Stop Making Sense has been added to the National Film Registry.

• READ MORE: Stop Making Sense: why Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads film will never be topped

The 1984 film is one of 25 new additions to the catalogue in 2021, with other inductees including Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi, Wall-E, Selena and more.

The Library of Congress adds 25 films to the registry annually, recognising aesthetically, culturally, or historically significant films that showcase “the range and diversity of American film heritage.”

Others inducted in 2021 include comedy special Richard Pryor: Live in Concert from 1979, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and more, while 2020 saw Grease, The Blues Brothers, A Clockwork Orange, Shrek and more join the list.

In 2019, Prince’s 1984 film Purple Rain was added to the National Film Registry alongside Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Martin Scorsese’s classic concert film for the Band, The Last Waltz.

See the full list of 2021 inductees to the National Film Registry here.

Last year, David Byrne addressed his use of black and brownface in a promo skit for Stop Making Sense.

Taking to Twitter, Byrne revealed that a journalist had recently pointed out this particular part of the promo material to him, and proceeded to call the inclusion of the blackface and brownface a “major mistake in judgement”.

“In the piece I appear as a number of different characters interviewing myself, and some of the characters portrayed are people of colour,” Byrne wrote, adding that he had “just about forgotten about this skit and I’m grateful that it has been brought to my attention”.

“To watch myself in the various characters, including black and brown face, I acknowledge it was a major mistake in judgement that showed a lack of real understanding,” he added. “It’s like looking in a mirror and seeing someone else- you’re not, or were not, the person you thought you were.”

The comments came as a number of TV shows, films and more were removed from streaming services due to their use of blackface, after Black Lives Matter protests took place across the globe in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last summer.

Episodes of Peep Show, The Office, Community, 30 Rock, The Mighty Boosh, Little Britain and more were all taken off of streaming services in 2020.

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