Post by klep on Dec 4, 2017 21:54:50 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 12/4: Paris Is Burning
THANKSGIVING WEEK!
NOTE: The wonderful Carrie Nelson filled in for me this week!
Paris is Burning is the first movie I remember watching in film school. It wasn't the first I actually watched, but I remember it more strongly than any of the classics of early cinema I was watching around that same time. I went to film school to study documentary, and Paris sticks with me, in part, because it was completely unlike any other documentary I had seen at that point.
Directed by Jennie Livingston, Paris is an in-depth exploration of early ‘90s ball culture, an LGBT subculture that incorporated drag, voguing, and other types of competitive performance. The ball scene provided the most marginalized of queer folks — people of color, youth, trans women — with community, family (known as “Houses”), and acceptance. And the reverberations of ball culture could be felt throughout pop culture in the ‘90s; members of the famed House of Xtravaganza appeared in Madonna’s “Vogue” music video and toured as backup dancers on her Blond Ambition Tour. Paris is not an exhaustive history of the culture — it is a detailed profile of the people who made it what it was, with all of the glory and trauma that accompanied it.
Though the bulk of the action takes place during the ball scenes, when viewers get to witness the glamour and “realness” in action, but I’ve always been especially drawn to the interviews. Just like much of the photography in the film, the interviews are often shot handheld, sometimes while subjects are applying makeup or sewing costumes. Frequently they are shot in decorated bedrooms or on neighborhood streets that provide a deeper context for the subjects and their daily lives. Rarely if ever do the interviews feel like conventional talking heads — there’s so much detail and movement, making these scenes feel less like interviews at all and more like intimate conversations that you the viewer are having with members of the ball community.
Some years ago, I was watching Paris with a friend who'd never seen it. When it was over, she said “That was interesting, but nothing really happens in it.” What she meant is that there isn’t one overarching narrative that ties the entire story together. This isn’t The Queen, Frank Simon’s 1968 drag culture documentary that narrows its focus specifically to the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest. The format of Paris is much more sprawling, with characters and themes and locations weaving in and out organically. It’s a style that suits its content, and an artificial structure would feel distracting and unnecessary. It may not be a conventional narrative, but a great deal happens in Paris, in its own way and at its own pace.
There is much to love about Paris, but no discussion of the film is complete without acknowledging the very real criticisms and concerns that many have of the film. In particular, the fact that Jennie Livingston, a white cisgender lesbian, is telling the story of ball culture on behalf of black and Latinx gay men and trans women is important to acknowledge. While Livingston’s identity in itself does not make her film invalid, there are concerns that her lens is not the most authentic for examining ball culture. In her famous critique of the documentary, bell hooks argues that the fact that Livingston’s whiteness is never interrogated within the film itself "turn(s) the black drag ball into a spectacle for the entertainment of those presumed to be on the outside of the experience looking in.” Even today, the film and Livingston’s involvement generates controversy; when a twenty-fifth anniversary screening was planned in New York two years ago, protests rightfully erupted when no queer people of color were invited to join Livingston in presenting the screening. For everything that Paris has done to boost the visibility of ball culture, it has also led to the further marginalization and objectification of the community, and many would argue that Livingston has yet to answer for that.
Paris is both a vitally necessary, game-changing documentary and a relic that does not do enough to center the lens of queer people of color. It is a messy, beautiful, frustrating film that we simultaneously need to exist and need to not repeat. And I hope that every film school freshman gets to watch it like I did, because regardless of what you think of it, it’s truly unforgettable.
-Carrie Nelson
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 12/11: Amadeus
Milos Forman's Best Picture-winning Amadeus is our next Movie of the Week! Adapted from the play, Amadeus fictionalizes the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Amadeus is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/30: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
This week's podcast concludes with Martin McDonagh's new film about a woman in a small town seeking justice. McDonagh's words coming out of Frances McDormand's mouth is not something to be missed. We'll have a thread regardless next Wednesday. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is in theaters.
THANKSGIVING WEEK!
NOTE: The wonderful Carrie Nelson filled in for me this week!
Paris is Burning is the first movie I remember watching in film school. It wasn't the first I actually watched, but I remember it more strongly than any of the classics of early cinema I was watching around that same time. I went to film school to study documentary, and Paris sticks with me, in part, because it was completely unlike any other documentary I had seen at that point.
Directed by Jennie Livingston, Paris is an in-depth exploration of early ‘90s ball culture, an LGBT subculture that incorporated drag, voguing, and other types of competitive performance. The ball scene provided the most marginalized of queer folks — people of color, youth, trans women — with community, family (known as “Houses”), and acceptance. And the reverberations of ball culture could be felt throughout pop culture in the ‘90s; members of the famed House of Xtravaganza appeared in Madonna’s “Vogue” music video and toured as backup dancers on her Blond Ambition Tour. Paris is not an exhaustive history of the culture — it is a detailed profile of the people who made it what it was, with all of the glory and trauma that accompanied it.
Though the bulk of the action takes place during the ball scenes, when viewers get to witness the glamour and “realness” in action, but I’ve always been especially drawn to the interviews. Just like much of the photography in the film, the interviews are often shot handheld, sometimes while subjects are applying makeup or sewing costumes. Frequently they are shot in decorated bedrooms or on neighborhood streets that provide a deeper context for the subjects and their daily lives. Rarely if ever do the interviews feel like conventional talking heads — there’s so much detail and movement, making these scenes feel less like interviews at all and more like intimate conversations that you the viewer are having with members of the ball community.
Some years ago, I was watching Paris with a friend who'd never seen it. When it was over, she said “That was interesting, but nothing really happens in it.” What she meant is that there isn’t one overarching narrative that ties the entire story together. This isn’t The Queen, Frank Simon’s 1968 drag culture documentary that narrows its focus specifically to the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest. The format of Paris is much more sprawling, with characters and themes and locations weaving in and out organically. It’s a style that suits its content, and an artificial structure would feel distracting and unnecessary. It may not be a conventional narrative, but a great deal happens in Paris, in its own way and at its own pace.
There is much to love about Paris, but no discussion of the film is complete without acknowledging the very real criticisms and concerns that many have of the film. In particular, the fact that Jennie Livingston, a white cisgender lesbian, is telling the story of ball culture on behalf of black and Latinx gay men and trans women is important to acknowledge. While Livingston’s identity in itself does not make her film invalid, there are concerns that her lens is not the most authentic for examining ball culture. In her famous critique of the documentary, bell hooks argues that the fact that Livingston’s whiteness is never interrogated within the film itself "turn(s) the black drag ball into a spectacle for the entertainment of those presumed to be on the outside of the experience looking in.” Even today, the film and Livingston’s involvement generates controversy; when a twenty-fifth anniversary screening was planned in New York two years ago, protests rightfully erupted when no queer people of color were invited to join Livingston in presenting the screening. For everything that Paris has done to boost the visibility of ball culture, it has also led to the further marginalization and objectification of the community, and many would argue that Livingston has yet to answer for that.
Paris is both a vitally necessary, game-changing documentary and a relic that does not do enough to center the lens of queer people of color. It is a messy, beautiful, frustrating film that we simultaneously need to exist and need to not repeat. And I hope that every film school freshman gets to watch it like I did, because regardless of what you think of it, it’s truly unforgettable.
-Carrie Nelson
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 12/11: Amadeus
Milos Forman's Best Picture-winning Amadeus is our next Movie of the Week! Adapted from the play, Amadeus fictionalizes the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Amadeus is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/30: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
This week's podcast concludes with Martin McDonagh's new film about a woman in a small town seeking justice. McDonagh's words coming out of Frances McDormand's mouth is not something to be missed. We'll have a thread regardless next Wednesday. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is in theaters.