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Livingston studied photography and painting at Yale University. It's about people who have a lot of prejudices against them and who have learned to survive with wit, dignity and energy. It's about how we're all influenced by the media how we strive to meet the demands of the media by trying to look like Vogue models or by owning a big car. This is a film that is important for anyone to see, whether they're gay or not. However, Livingston maintained in 1991 that the film was not just about dance: The film also documents the origins of " voguing", a dance style in which competing ball-walkers pose and freeze in glamorous positions as if being photographed for the cover of Vogue. The African-American and Latino community depicted in the film includes a diverse range of sexual identities and gender presentations, from "butch queens" (gay cisgender men) to transgender women, to drag queens, to butch women.
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Through candid one-on-one interviews, the film offers insight into the lives and struggles of its subjects and the strength, pride, and humor they display to survive in a "rich, white world."ĭrag is presented as a complex performance of gender, class, and race, and a way to express one's identity, desires and aspirations. Some subjects save money for sex reassignment surgery, while a few have extensive surgery others receive breast implants without undergoing vaginoplasty.Īccording to Livingston, the documentary is a multi-leveled exploration of an African-American and Latino subculture that serves as a microcosm of fame, race, and wealth in the larger US culture.
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Several are disowned by transphobic and homophobic parents, leaving them vulnerable to homelessness. Others shoplift clothing so they can "walk" in the balls. Near the end of the film, Angie Xtravaganza, Venus's "house mother", reacts to news that Venus is found strangled to death and speculates that a disgruntled client killed her. Some, such as Venus Xtravaganza, become sex workers to support themselves. The film also explores how its subjects deal with issues such as AIDS, racism, poverty, violence and homophobia. The "houses" serve as surrogate families for young ball-walkers who face rejection from their biological families for their gender expression and sexual orientation. The film explains how words such as house, mother, shade, reading and legendary gain new meaning when used in novel ways to describe the gay and drag subculture. Many of them contribute monologues that shed light on gender roles, gay and ball subcultures, and their own life stories. Jennie Livingston, who moved to New York after graduating from Yale to work in film, spent six years making Paris Is Burning, and interviewed key figures in the ball world. Houses and ball contestants who consistently win trophies for their walks eventually earn "legendary" status. Many of the contestants vying for trophies are representatives of " houses" that serve as intentional families, social groups, and performance teams. 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. "Banjee boys" are judged by their ability to pass as their straight counterparts in the outside world. For example, the category " banjee realness" comprises gay men portraying macho archetypes such as sailors, soldiers, and street hoodlums. Contestants are judged on criteria including their dance talent, the beauty of their clothing, and the "realness" of their drag - i.e., their ability to pass as a member of the group or sex they are portraying.
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The film explores the elaborately-structured ball competitions in which contestants, adhering to a very specific "category" or theme, must "walk", much like a fashion model parades a runway.