Paris is Burning

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark 1990 documentary provides a vibrant snapshot 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 and transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza — Paris Is Burning brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community.

Jennie Livingston’s film received almost universally enthusiastic reviews and a relatively wide release for a non-gender conforming documentary. Its fundamental humanity still resonates, more than 30 years later.

Staff Pick: Perry

As much a movie about class, race, and sexual orientation as anything you’ve ever seen, Paris is Burning is deceptively simple on its surface, but by the end you’ll find yourself devastated by its take on the American dream.

Steve Davis, Austin Chroncile

Jennie Livingston’s time capsule look of LGBT balls is an acknowledged classic, inclusively incisive in its portrait of a NYC diaspora of a marginalized community building bonds within itself without glossing over racism, gender identity and other perpetually germane concerns.

Vadim Rizov, Filmmaker magazine

Jennie Livingston’s seminal documentary not only introduced me to the Harlem vogue ball subculture; it also shattered the expectations of who can be the subject of a documentary. The sobering truth of the lives depicted in Paris Is Burning unapologetically addressed the societal challenges of their intersectional identities.

PJ Raval, International Documentary Association

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