Documentary Review: Paris is Burning

By Al Preston

---

            Way back when I started researching for LGBT+ studies, my professor had me watching Paris is Burning: a documentary about Drag in the 80s that came out in 1990. I don’t remember it very well from back then. My project was about the language people used to describe their queerness. I don’t think I paid much attention to the documentary as a whole because of that. I was too young a researcher.

            Recently, I was doing some research on Drag for a podcast episode and saw the title again. I couldn’t remember if I had seen it before, so I sought it out. Just thinking it would be another bit of help with my research.

            The instant it started playing, I knew I had seen it, and I knew I was going to cry at some point and that I knew so much more this time around. I knew that this time, this documentary would mean far much more to me.

            The documentary focuses on a few members of Houses in the 1987 and 1989 Ball scene in New York City. This was where the Drag we know today came from. More specifically, the black queer community.

            The Houses Ninja, Extravaganza, Conan, and a few others are the focus of the film. Each House has a different approach to Drag and what gender means to them.

            Our notions of gender and identity were just making their way into common language around the time this film came out. The nineties were formative academically for LGBT+ folks and studies. In the 80s, things were very different. To many of those who appeared in the documentary, Drag meant showing off gayness in a unique way that plays with gender. Individuals participating in the Balls are split, however, on the gender element of Drag.

            Nearly the entire purpose of Drag is to present oneself in a gender not originally ascribed to themselves. Men dress in women’s clothes, women in men’s and there are categories for those of androgyny among us. However, to some of those participating in Balls in the 1990s, Drag was a reflecting of who they wanted to be, women. For others, it was just a way to express oneself and one’s gayness, specifically, male gayness in some cases.

            Balls could be brutal competitions. The names of the Houses are derived from the personas of their best competitor. These are names that are passed down, legacies to be upheld. Each House, has a leader, or Mother, who takes care of the younger gay folks. Each House sees gender and sexuality differently.

            For example, House Extravaganza and the Conan houses seem to be comprised of Drag Queens who, mostly, wish to transition into a full female identity. Not everyone in the house, but of the members who competed and were the focus of the documentary, most did.

            On the other hand, House Ninja and a few of the other Houses did not want to transition. They were happy with their male identities but loved Drag and the competitions. While this documentary shows a split in the community, there were many more nuances that were not shown. Like if transitioning fully makes one a ‘Drag Queen’ anymore.

            Between the younger Queens talking about preparing for the Balls or what they wanted from life, were elder the Queens who had seen it all. Who had experienced Drag before the 80s and would go on to experience it afterwards. They were nostalgic for the times before, when Queens would mimic movie stars instead of models.

            Voguing and Shade were heavily talked about and the part of the documentary I happened to retain from my initial watch through in the past. Both Voguing and Shade are forms of expression and insult. Shade is the result of Queens ‘reading’ each other, which is just seeing a flaw or insecurity and mocking it with clever comebacks.

            Voguing, as according to the Mother of House Ninja, is a pantomiming dance form that is designed to point out flaws and fling insults much like Shade. It’s known for t’s characteristic sharp movements to a beat. The name ‘Voguing’ itself comes from the fact that many of the dancers’ poses are made to look like they are from the Vogue magazines.

            This documentary is only a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, of Drag. At the time of the documentary recording, there were Newscasts showing Drag shows that were raising money for those with AIDS. However, in 1990, this documentary was the widest spread view of Drag. Local news casts caught bits and pieces of Ball culture, but this was the first of its kind. More documentaries were to follow.

            For many it was their first ever view of Drag. For others, it was their first time seeing Drag as something beyond ‘a man in a dress’.  As the 90s continued on, more and more Drag performers and culture went on display. RuPaul became a household name for music and drag. Documentaries like this showed gay and straight people alike that there was more to the queer community than initially thought.

            When RuPaul’s Drag Race aired in the 2000s, Drag was relatively well known and understood. With the developments in queer academia, public perceptions of queerness of all kinds were changing. While the LGB part of the acronym gained, and has continued to gain, more recognition and understanding, the T part tends to be left behind or ignored. Drag Queens are easier to understand when they’re just gay men who liked to dress as women sometimes.

            Things get far more complicated when it’s not just a performance of gender, but a performance of identity.

            I highly recommend giving this documentary a watch. It’s on a few different sites, but I watched a free version on YouTube. There was no color and sometimes the sound cuts out, but it was free. It’s a fascinating and important piece of American queer history.

            I will warn of two things. One, there is a section where naked bodies are shown without blurring or censorship. One of the categories at the ball is about naked bodies and people displaying them for the crowd to see.

            Second (spoilers incoming), and this is the reason I cry every time, one of the Queens interviewed, Venus, is killed between filming sessions. A victim of the typical violence transgender women face and then the ‘gay panic’ defense when it came to her murderer’s trial, Venus was a young transgender woman who had big dreams and a love of Balls.

            Her death is both sudden and handled almost as a side note. While her Drag Mother was clearly upset at her death, the film spends only a few moments to her passing before continuing on. Which, sadly, feels very familiar to how most queer deaths were and have been handled by the wider public.

            It is heavily implied that the last time she was seen alive by friendly faces was when she finished recording another interview with the documentary crew. It’s a heartbreaking part of the documentary.

            Those warnings aside, this is a great documentary to watch if you want to understand Drag, the queer community, and the way we became who we are as a community today.