Assignments - Our feature this week is Paris Is Burning, an extraordinary documentary about t

Our feature this week is Paris Is Burning, an extraordinary documentary about t

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May 13, 2024

Our feature this week is Paris Is Burning, an extraordinary documentary about t

Our feature this week is Paris Is Burning, an extraordinary documentary about the drag ball and voguing subculture of the late 1980’s (right before Madonna’s 1990 hit single Vogue created a certain degree of mainstream exposure for this scene).
Director Jennie Livingston shot the film as her NYU film school thesis project, choosing a style that is way more impressionistic, immersive and personal than we find in many traditional documentary films. (For instance, there is no omniscient voiceover narration, and the subjects get to tell their own story very directly.)
Even though Paris Is Burning was not conceived or meant as a historical documentary, it captures a moment in New York City history that is now long bygone – the time before Mayor Giuliani ‘cleaned up’ the city, when gay culture was less assimilated, existed more on the fringes of society and was beset by the spectral cloud of AIDS, especially for the disenfranchised gay people of color whose lives the film documents.
Your homework is to answer these questions about the film, which you can view via this link:

1. Which one of the various prominently featured individuals in the film did you personally find the most interesting (or relatable) in terms of the experience they talked about or the perspective they offered, and why? (AT LEAST 150 WORDS)
2. This is the link to Madonna’s famous live performance of Vogue at the 1990 MTV Music Awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTaXtWWR16A. What are the notable similarities and/or differences between the way in which she and Livingston – both white women – represent the Black and Latino performers in vogue and drag ball culture?