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Paris Is Burning
by Miramax
| List Price: |
$29.99 |
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$23.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$6.00 (20%) |
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DVD
BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO
Publisher: Miramax
Paul Gibson
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Actors: Carmen and Brooke, André Christian, Dorian Corey, Paris Duprée, David The Father Xtravaganza
The award-winning PARIS IS BURNING has been igniting audiences and critics across the country and all over the world with record-breaking box office performances. An unblinking behind-the-scenes story of fashion-obsessed New Yorkers who created "voguing" and drag balls, and turned these raucous celebrations into a powerful expression of fierce personal pride. This world-within-a-world is instantly familiar, filled with ambitions, desires, and yearnings that reflect America itself. Paris Is Burning is an intimate portrait of one urban community, a world in which the allure of high fashion, status, and wealth becomes an affirmation of love, acceptance, and joy.
Paris Is Burning closes with two neon-lit boys holding each other on the streets of Harlem. One looks into the camera and asks, "So this is New York City and what the gay lifestyle is all about--right?" This documentary takes an honest, humorous, and surprisingly poignant peek into one of America's overlooked subcultures: the world of the urban drag queen. It's a parallel dimension of bizarre beauty, where "houses" vie like gangs for turf and reputation ... only instead of street-fighting, they vogue their way down makeshift catwalks in competitive "balls." The only rule of the ballroom: be real. In surprisingly candid interviews, you discover the grace, strength, and humor it takes to be gay, black, and poor in a straight, rich, white world. You'll meet young transsexual "cover girls," street hustlers saving up for the big operation, and aging drag divas reminiscing about the bygone days of sequins, feathers, and Marilyn Monroe. Made in the late 1980s, this fashion-conscious film shows its age less than you'd expect. It's still a great watch for anyone interested in the whole range of humanity, or anyone who's ever been an outsider, desperately wanting something the world hides out of reach. --Grant Balfour
Fascinating, discomfiting, and poignant (sometimes all at once), Paris Is Burning documents New York City's recherché "ball" circuit, where members of the black and Latino gay, transvestite, and transsexual communities compete to see who can wear the most outlandish outfits and dance, pose, and generally show off to most outrageous effect. These are folks who live with a double whammy of discrimination, as they are minorities both sexually and racially. But while their tales of rejection by both society and their own families are woeful and bitter, the participants come alive when they hit the "runway" (actually the floor of some old gymnasium) to strut their stuff, liberated from the pressure of blending in with the mainstream. "Whatever you want to be, you be," says one, whether it's a school kid, a country club polo player, a high-rent executive, a character from television's Dynasty (which for some represents the dernier cri in elegance and wealth)… anything goes. Along the way, we meet characters with names like Pepper Labeija, Venus Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja; we also learn about "reading" (i.e., dissing your competitors), "shading" (a more subtle, non-verbal version of the same thing), and "voguing" (later adopted by Madonna, it combines the poses and haughty looks of your average supermodel). Critics at the time of the film's original 1990 release tended to focus on the sadness and not-so-quiet desperation of these people's efforts to transcend their circumstances and become one-night legends, but overall, Paris Is Burning comes across as simply a damn good time. --Sam Graham
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Somebody please release this one on Blu-Ray |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This movie was a powerhouse when it first debuted, and even if some of the cultural touchstones are dated, it's still a powerhouse. Funny, tragic, fabulous. I wish they'd get it out on blu-ray disc so these 3D characters can be appreciated in full depth.
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| an unexamined life is not worth living |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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--Socrates
Paris Is Burning was far better than I expected it to be; I couldn't take my eyes off the screen! This is an excellent portrait of the minority (mostly black and Hispanic) drag queen community as it existed in New York City in the late 1980s. Watching this film you will discover how these people related to each other in all sorts of ways and how they handled their relationships not only amongst themselves but with their families and the straight, white world in general that wasn't exactly too accepting of them then and still has a ways to go toward true acceptance in our times.
The footage of the "balls" these gay drag queens hold is fantastic. A ball is easily explained--the minority drag queens gather in a social hall and essentially take turns walking down the middle of the social hall as if they were rich and famous models walking down the runway. They get to be and feel the way they REALLY feel inside; and their peers cheer them on as they walk the walk. They get ratings by judges and prizes are often awarded. Of course, things get more complicated; not everybody is in love with everybody else. We learn how these gay men including the drag queens take each other on with wisecracks about their appearances; and the footage of them voguing shows us great dancing as well as a competition to determine who's the better man.
There's also the concept of "houses;" these are the gay male/drag queen equivalent of street gangs. There is a leader of the house (or, group) called the "mother;" and the house has its rules as to how someone can become a member--perhaps, for example, they have to walk down that runway at a ball and snag a prize to become a house member. We also learn what it means to "mop;" and the footage with Dorian Corey reminiscing about the way things used to be when he was younger is fascinating.
These men don't have it easy; one of them says that being black, male and gay gives them three strikes against them before life even starts! It's sad but that's the way things went; I would like to think things have improved somewhat with the election of an African-American president but I'm sure the members of this community still experience unfair prejudice. The film has lots of commentary from many members of the gay male and drag queen community who give us a good amount of insight as to how they cope with the social stress they must face and I liked that a great deal.
The DVD comes with outtakes; and there's an optional running commentary as well.
Paris Is Burning is an outstanding motion picture for anyone who wants to know what really went on in the minority drag queen/gay male community not so long ago. This film is quite well done and it deserves more recognition that it gets.
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| Extravaganza! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This documentary is one that will have a wider appeal that just the gay community. There are so many funny one liners in this film. You will be laughing, learning, and crying, all in a matter of a few minutes.
Drag culture has become very popular, so it is great to see this film explore the phenomenon in the early 1990's. Any film that allows the viewer to explore communities that are outside the "norm" of society are important, and this one is well edited and interesting to watch.
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| Longing and Belonging |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Society is a trickster. She tells everyone that you have hope, possibility, and choice; participate in the American dream, all you need to do is work hard, believe, and it will happen. However, while society sets that up as a possibility, there are also barriers and impediments that prevent that from happening. A part of society yet apart from society, people will strive to find their identity, their place, their sense of belonging. Thus sets up the premise of the revolutionary documentary "Paris is Burning".
Set in New York City in the 1980's, "Paris is Burning" sets up a fascinating alternative society in which people gather all night long in a "ball", perform and strut their presence in different categories to receive trophies claiming their brilliance. Noveau filmmaker Jennie Livingston met some dancers in Washington Square park "voguing" (pre-Madonna days), and asked to photograph them for a film school project. Soon, she became enveloped into this entirely magical world full of gender redefining people, and was able to examine the role of race, privilege, and the AIDS crisis in society.
What impressed me about this film is how much, when people are denied their place in society, they will find their own ways to find their significance and belonging. When granted naturally to a group of people without having done a thing to earn that significance (by virtue of their accepted skin color or wealth), this film could be seen as much too odd or alternative; shocking even. However, people strive for dignity; and when marginalized by media, race rules, societal rules, will find ways to achieve that dignity; hence the balls.
It's a marvelous look inside this community, which must have completely trusted this white girl coming into it, to open up and show all of the aspects of this culture. Most of the performers in the movie have since died, a community which was wracked hard by the AIDS crisis. However, their spirit, and their movement lives on in this film, and in the hearts of the people who are able to watch it.
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| fermentation is a necessary process in filmaking... |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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i've noticed a number of comments about the dated feel and look of "paris is burning". i've watched 'paris' many times before purchasing it finally...not sure why because i think i liked the film from the start. a couple years ago, i listened to the directors commentary track to hear about what was going in some scenes and get insights into some of the people involve. apparently, the film took almost ten years to make due to financing problems...i wouldn't have known. but, i was impressed with the artistry that the men and women featured showed and expressed themselves. also, what is interesting about the commentary track is learning about what has become of some of the people in the film...sadly, most of them had their fame only in the ballroom and only in this film.
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