Paris Is Burning, Jennie Livingston’s 1991 documentary about the New York ball scene, has been argued over since the time of its release. The one thing I think everyone familiar with the movie can agree on is that it is enduring. As a portrait of queer POC interfacing with the harsh realities of white patriarchy, it is perpetually relevant (and made even more explicitly so via the rise of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which has overtly referenced the film and implicitly shares much of its ethos). At this point, it seems like people will be debating this movie—and the ethics of a white filmmaker capturing and commodifying a world to which she was an outsider—until the end of time.
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I don’t know. I really don’t. I read people who have sort of reflexive criticisms that seem to be based on internet facts and miss a whole lot of other real facts. And other people who just love it, for whom it’s part of their lexicon as queer or trans people.
I felt this world completely connected to my understanding of what it is to be an American. That’s what we wanted other people to feel.You’ve talked about this movie being your surrogate film school. Is there anything you’d do differently now that you didn’t then because you were so green?
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