The documentary Paris is Burning is a particularly important record of LGTQ people of color in New York in the 1980s. More specifically, the film is about the ballroom subculture, made up primarily of young, disenfranchised LGTQ POC gathering to “walk” and dance (where “voguing” comes from) in costume. The film has had a lasting impact on current vernacular, such as “shade,” “kiki,” and “realness.”
There was controversy after the documentary around compensation and how the project was represented by Jennie Livingston. The subjects of the documentary lived difficult lives in poverty and the film ended with the murder of Venus Xtravaganza. The resulting question is for documentary film makers as it is for ethnographers – When your career is based in the lives of your subjects, what do you owe them? How might you change their lives by making them famous while they still live in poverty?
The discord around the film reoccured around the 2015 Celebrate Brooklyn screening of Paris is Burning, which was to be accompanied by Jennie Livingston and DJ’ed by JD Samson, both of whom are white queer people. No people of color or representatives from the continuing ballroom scene were invited. Attention was quickly drawn to the silencing of people of color around their own stories and parallels to ongoing gentrification in Brooklyn. A change.org petition declaring “#ParisIsBurnt” was started calling for canceling the event. Ultimately Samson dropped out and ballroom participants who appeared in the documentary were invited to participate.
This year the documentary Kiki was released and has drawn parallels to Paris is Burning, though the director seems to have taken a more collaborative approach and learned from Livingston’s mistakes. It looks at the contemporary ballroom subculture, the importance of DIY, and activism.