PARIS IS BURNING

Paris is burning is not necessarily a gay movie but a 1990 documentary about the ball culture among the gay and transgender. It consisted of the minority Latino and African-American communities. Balls are competitions in which cross dressers compete on a run way walk just like real models. Judgement criteria includes drag reality, clothing beauty and voguing. Voguing is a dance imitating the fashion poses on the cover of Vogue Magazine. This gay documentary switches between ball competitions and interviews with some of the prominent members in the scene. It explores their personal lives and things they have had to go through because of their identity such as racism, homophobia, AIDS and poverty. Some were kicked out by their parents at a young age while some survive as sex workers. This underground community finds freedom to be themselves in these balls away from a world which discriminates and despises them.