Paris is Burning

Paris Is Burning was released in 1991 and is an entertaining documentary about the New York gay scene in the 1980’s which was Directed by Jennie Livingston. Jennie focuses on the different aspects of gay culture such as Houses, Mothers, Reading, Shade and also focuses on the negative elements such as Homelessness, Aids, shoplifting, and poverty of the LGBT community. Jennie does an amazing job showing how the New York Balls were done. A queen would perform in a category ranging from Butch Queen (A gay man dressed as a masculine woman) to Butch Queen First Time In Drag (a gay man dressed as a masculine woman, dressing as a feminine woman for the first time). It even had categories for Military personnel, Executive realness, and Fem Queen Realness. She interviews several legendary queens like Pepper LeBeija who was presently the mother for the House of LeBeija, Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, Willi Ninja, Dorian Corey, Paris Dupree, and many more fabulous queens. As expected, this movie faced a bunch of controversy and criticism. The National Endowment for the Arts provided a majority of funding for the film, yet Livingston kept most details of the film hidden due to a fear of having the funding taken away. Towards the end of the movie a shocking confession was made about the young queen Venus Xtravaganza. This allowed the queens to speak on the danger of surviving as a transgender woman during that time period. This is a super interesting documentary if you’re into Drag Queens or gay culture and could even enlighten some people on the dangers and challenges the LGBT culture faced circa 2000. I highly recommend everyone watch this movie as it will keep you interested throughout the whole film. by Tucker Vermillion