Paris is burning

Duration: 78

Year Published: 1991

Creator: Films Incorporated

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Livingston's film on the drag balls of Harlem provides a window into a complex American subculture composed of Black and Latino gay men. The balls are not merely runway parades but fashion competitions undertaken by various houses (gay street gangs) headed by a legendary mother who has won numerous trophies and acquired status in the world of the gay ball performance. Competing in various categories - schoolboy/schoolgirl, executive, military, town and country - the participants aim for realness, that is, becoming indistinguishable from their counterparts in the straight world. By replicating those types which help define the dominant culture, the models deconstruct and subvert those who have ostracized and persecuted them. Another integral component of the ball is voguing, an acrobatic dance form which appropriates the modeling poses in Vogue magazine and through which rival house members engage each other in overtly confrontational contests. Livingston's study co-mingles ball scenes and interviews with the subculture's children and veteran mothers who discuss the balls' joyful flamboyance as well as their more painful underpinnings. (Does not circulate).