Queer Movies That Made Me Queerer: Paris is Burning

Today is the 2nd entry of the Queer Movies That Me Queerer series! This Pride Month, I will be writing about queer movies that were important to my development as a queer person. Today, I’ll be diving into the legendary documentary Paris is Burning (1990), directed by Jennie Livingston.

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Paris is Burning should be required viewing. It should be shown in schools. We should know the houses of LaBeija, Dupree, Extravaganza, Pendavis, Ninja, Corey, and St. Laurent. Ballroom should be celebrated as a high art form. Paris is Burning captures a critically important aspect of queer history that many in the more mainstream versions of the community often choose to ignore. But without the Legendary Children of Harlem, queer culture wouldn’t be what it is today.

This documentary shows the world of ballroom during the late 1980s. Spread throughout the actual categories at the balls are interviews with some of the most important names in ballroom culture, including Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja. These house mothers, alongside important figures like Paris Dupree, helped to create and shape ballroom culture into what it was in 1987 and today. They turned voguing into a serious dance form and created the house system that helped many homeless queer people, abandoned by their families, get off the streets. The community they created saved countless lives and is credited with keeping the queer community together during the height of the AIDS epidemic, despite many of these house mothers dying from AIDS-related diseases themselves.

Many of the ways that queer folk across the world talk is influenced by the Drag Race franchise. One of the first times that overtly queer culture was on our television screens, queer people often talk in direct quotes from that show. However, so many of these quotes are direct quotes from Paris is Burning. This film has entered our lexicon as a community and really defined how we talk with one another. However, so many of our community (white queers) exclude those who contributed so much to our culture: black and brown folks, trans folk, poor folk, i.e. those who walk in the balls. It also raises questions regarding the appropriation of those subcultures that we do not participate in, something that white queer folk are regularly guilty of. Finding the line between reverence and appropriation is important, however, as there is no denying the important influences ballroom has had on our culture.

I’ve never been a part of ballroom culture. I’ve never walked a category, never snatched a trophy, never lived in a house. But that doesn’t mean that ballroom culture isn’t important to my life as a queer person, even a white one who lives in the suburbs. Ballroom culture shaped queer life significantly, even for those who did not live in it. Whether it’s Madonna’s “Vogue”; the lexicon of drag as an art form; the way queer people interact with one another; or the various other pieces of movies, music, television, and other media that can draw a direct throughline to ballroom, so much of our lives as queer folks are hugely influenced by ballroom. So then we must know the Legendary Children who brought it to us every ball.

What Paris is Burning taught me is that all of our struggles are interconnected. Just because one of us struggles because of our sexual orientation but not for our race doesn’t mean that we should not care about how one’s race can negatively impact them. The intersectionality of queer liberation is critical for our ability to continue fighting in the future. The liberation of queer folk is interconnected with the liberation of all people. We cannot achieve true queer liberation without racial liberation and class liberation, for example. Paris is Burning is an important look into why that liberation matters. The categories that Houses walk at the balls are critical examinations of our society. It is about the roles that society has defined as acceptable and the work that BIPOC and queer people have to put in to achieve that level of acceptance. You are working every day towards snatching trophies at the ball, just like you are working every day to fit into our world. It is time to break free from those barriers so that no one starts their life with “three strikes against [them] in this world”. We should be working to build a world where people like Venus Xtravaganza are not brutally murdered for trying to survive, a reality that many trans people still face. It is time for liberation for all!

Paris is Burning opened many of our eyes to an incredible art form and society that surrounded ballroom culture. Ballroom saved lives and defined who we are. We must learn about where our lives came from and how those before us influenced us. We can find strength in that knowledge, enjoy who we are, and work together for a better future. As Dorien Corey says, “You don’t have to bend the whole world. I think it’s better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.”