Paris Is Burning Literary Elements

Jennie Livingston

Dorian Corey and Pepper LaBeija

Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, Willi Ninja, and Angie Xtravaganza

Documentary

English

1991 – Grand Jury Prize Documentary, Sundance Film Festival

September 13, 1990

Jennie Livingston

Harlem, New York City, 1980s

Told from the point of view of queer ball performers in New York City during the 1980s

Energetic, informative, creative, somber, hopeful

The protagonists are the ball performers while the antagonists are abstract concepts like racism, classism, and homophobia that prevent performers from being themselves out in the world.

The central conflict depicted in the film is the relationship between the queer performers and the rest of an otherwise heteronormative, white society that judges them for their gender identity and sexuality. A secondary conflict appears at the end of the film in the form of the AIDS epidemic, which devastated the queer community.

Because of its documentary genre, the film does not feature a traditional "climax." However, Angie's revelation that Venus Xtravaganza was murdered is a type of climax, as it invites the viewer to think seriously about the issues raised by her interviews while Venus was still alive.

The film foreshadows Venus Xtravaganza's eventual death by featuring an interview with her in which she describes her hopes for her future. These dreams, of course, are never realized as she becomes a victim of sexual violence.

The practice of "throwing shade" is itself an example of understatement because, according to Dorian Corey, "I don't have to tell you you're ugly because you already know."

Paris is Burning is mostly innovative for its subject matter – a relatively unexplored segment of society at the time the film was made. Furthermore, unlike other documentary films of its kind, the film is narrated by the ball performers rather than the director or a separate, unattached narrator. This allows the performers to explain the allure of ball culture in their own words.

The name Paris is Burning alludes to a 1986 ball hosted by Paris Dupree, which is itself an allusion to the 1965 book Is Paris Burning? about the liberation of Paris during World War II.

The central paradox of the film is that, toward the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, elements of ballroom culture (like vogueing) began to be celebrated by mainstream society while queer people were still largely discriminated against and rejected for their gender identities and sexualities.

Venus Xtravaganza sees herself as the parallel to a suburban housewife, whom she argues has sex for money as well – just with her husband instead of a stranger.