Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it. Critics consider the film to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the "Golden Age" of New York City drag balls, and a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America. Most of the film alternates between footage of balls and interviews with prominent members of the scene, including Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja.
In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The title takes its name from the Paris Is Burning ball held annually by artist Paris Dupree who appears in the film.
The film also explores how its subjects deal with issues such as AIDS, racism, poverty, violence and homophobia. Several of whom had been disowned by transphobic and homophobic parents, leaving them vulnerable to homelessness. Others, such as Venus Xtravaganza, had become sex workers in order to support themselves.
Near the end of the film, Venus is found strangled under a bed at the Duchess Hotel in New York. Her killer was never found. More than 30 years after the debut of the film Paris Is Burning, Jersey City made the home where she lived with her grandmother and filmed most of her interviews for Paris Is Burning a historic landmark in an “intentional effort” to preserve the city’s LGBTQ+ history.
( ~ Wikipedia)
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