Paris is Burning
By Kit Macdonald
Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning (1990) is quite simply one of the most influential documentaries ever made. A vivid, heartbreaking and exuberant deep dive into New York’s drag ballroom scene in the late 1980s, it follows Black and Latino LGBTQ+ performers and “house” families as they compete in elaborately themed balls, creating spaces of glamour, safety and self-invention amid poverty, racism and homophobia.
The sheer charisma and deep intelligence of its subjects have been key in helping the film endure. Figures like Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey and Venus Xtravaganza discuss gender, class and the pursuit of the American dream with wit and devastating honesty. The documentary also introduced wider audiences to ballroom terminology and voguing culture long before they entered the mainstream. Decades on, its influence on fashion, music, television and queer culture can still be felt worldwide.