PARIS IS BURNING
Genre
Documentary, LGBTQ+
Language
VOA
Duration
78
Rating
About
PARC AT MIDNIGHT: STAFF PICKS
Selected by Léa, customer service staff member:
“This film had such a big impact, and I think it’s still very relevant today. […] It explores similar battles to the ones we still have to fight. […] To me, it’s a movie that’s still very much alive and is very strong.”
“This film had such a big impact, and I think it’s still very relevant today. […] It explores similar battles to the ones we still have to fight. […] To me, it’s a movie that’s still very much alive and is very strong.”
Synopsis: 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.
“The defiant joy we witness in the ball walkers at so many moments of the film, despite the AIDS pandemic, racism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, homelessness, violence, harassment, addiction, and whatever other hardships they may have been dealing with at any given time, was infectious in 1990, when the film premiered, and remains so today. In this era of fake news, hate speech, anti-trans legislation, the resurgence of white-supremacist ideology, immigration blockades, and mass violence to suppress social change and human-rights advancements, Paris Is Burning still provides a vision of vibrant resistance—a fierce proclamation that queer and trans lives matter, now as they did then. That message, along with the unique performance culture and the everyday lives that Paris illuminates for us, made it a global revelation when it was released and has since elevated it to legendary status.” (THE CRITERION COLLECTION)
Directed by
Jennie Livingston
Actors
Pepper LaBeija, Octavia St. Laurent, Venus Xtravaganza
Country
United States
Version
Original English Version
Release year
1991