Review of Paris Is Burning (1991) by Danie S — 16 Nov 2007

Dir. Jennie Livingston.

Released in 1991, Jennie Livingston's 'Paris is Burning' is a documentary that focuses its lens on the lower class GBT community in the late 80's and the elaborate 'Balls' that were held in the back alley dance halls of New York. The members of this community are thrice marginalized: they are gay, poor, and ethnic minorities (either black or Hispanic). As society has no space for the marginalized, Balls create this space for them to exist and to perform.

The film documents the Balls, the slang and jargon associated with them, the 'Houses' which are often metaphors for the homes in which many of them were no longer welcome at, and key characters who make up the narrative of the film and provide different perspectives and insight in to a world and experience that is foreign to the mainstream.

It offers an empathetic and non-judgmental lens to a community and sub-culture that, today, is often caricaturized. Each participant in Balls are members of different Houses and perform in drag, in different categories; 'the businessman', 'the college student,' 'the woman.' Winners are based on who can pass legitimately as the people they are emulating; those who imbue 'realness'.

The film juxtaposes the spectacle of the Balls with the harsh reality of poverty and societal hardships and prejudice the subjects face and must overcome on a day to day basis, relaying their experiences to the camera with tenacity, pride, and a self-conscious acceptance of their position in society, and in life. The Ball is their refuge and a space in which, for once, they can be successful. Their participation subverts notions of success as one that is identified through visible markers--fitting, too, considering the rapid consumerism in Regan's 80's--by appropriating these markers in to their costumes.

It is not a parody, but rather a projection of their aspirations and representative of a world closed off to them due to their race, class, and sexuality. Indeed, such markers, the need for them as a form of social representation of status, imply an unconscious conformity. Fitting in is a performance. Really, it proposes the notion that everyone puts on a costume when they wake up in the morning. It is not a film of 'us' and 'them'. They are us and we are them.

Often humourous and absolutely bursting at the seams with raw humanity, 'Paris is Burning' is about being real--to be real to one's self--and to claim ownership of this by ripping it from the jaws of a society that is hostile to difference and seeks to define identity by its narrow standards. Because, regardless of my Disney-like interpretation, sometimes being true to who you are is the only self-evident truth you have. And, as a result, the film, the setting, the characters capture that ever elusive realness they pursued, quite 'fiercely'.