Paris Is Burning

Jennie Livingston spent seven years inside New York’s ball scene, and what she came back with is the closest thing queer culture has to a founding document. Reading, shade, voguing, houses, “realness” — the words you have heard in a Drag Race lip sync started in these rooms, with these people, most of whom were Black and Latina, trans or gay, and broke.

It is joyful for about forty minutes and then it is not, and the turn is the point. Watch it for Dorian Corey and Pepper LaBeija holding court. Stay for the fact that Venus Xtravaganza’s story is the one nobody has ever managed to make less devastating. Nothing since has replaced it.

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? 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. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

Synopsis and poster via TMDB.