While Paris is Burning is a slightly older film released February 23, 1991, I believe this film is a cultural icon that still deserves to be talked about today.
Paris is Burning is a documentary that focuses on the New York City ballroom culture in the late 1980s. Ballroom culture is an African-American and Latin LGBTQ+ subculture that embraces flamboyancy, self-expression, and creativity through dances such as “voguing”. This film also explores their “house” culture and the more negative sides of being a part of this subculture. There are many different aspects of this film that make it so incredible, but in this article I want to focus on the authenticity of it.
This film does an incredible job exploring the authentic highs and lows of ballroom culture. The highs were the display of a strong community. The film explores “house” culture, which is a group of drag queens and other LGBTQ+ people coming together to form a family-like dynamic to support each other. These houses were often formed by people rejected by their own families. Seeing the connections between the people in each house was extremely inspiring and uplifting. Many of the people in the film were not living in the best situations, but they found a way to turn it into a positive and uplift each other. I cannot stress how heartening and empowering it was to see how strong this sense of community was. On the other hand, the lows were displayed by the AIDS epidemic, homophobia, racism, and poverty. In the film, many people who were interviewed explain how they were pushed away from their families due to their identities. While many people were able to seek out a family with other people in the subculture, we still see how alienated and rejected these people felt, which is quite emotional. The film also shows the effects of homophobia and racism with the death of Venus Xtravaganza. Venus’s “house mother”, Angie Xtravaganza, discusses finding Venus dead in a hotel room. This vulnerable moment really puts into perspective how violent people got towards trans women and people of color. Overall, the film did a phenomenal job highlighting the duality of ballroom culture.
In summary, I believe Paris is Burning is an incredible film. It has true documentary authenticity and also has solid cinematography and organization. I would highly recommend this film due to how well it informs about this subculture and the sense of community felt afterwards.
