History Film / ParisIsBurning

* StealthInsult: Or rather "shade", which is stealth insults as raised to an art form in black and Latino queer communities. As [[DiscussedTrope explained by]] Dorian Corey in the documentary, "Shade is I don't tell you you're ugly, but I don't have to tell you because you ''know'' you're ugly. And that's shade."

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The performers range from gay men to trans women, hitting on everything in between. In 2 cases it is said that a performer is trans, in 1 case a gay man announces that he loves to dress in drag but doesn't want to be a woman ("that's going too far"), and for the rest part it is completely unstated -- including many who have had different stages of gender surgery, some who dress feminine publicly all the time, etc. But it doesn't really matter.

[[caption-width-right:350:Having a ball... Wish you were here!]]

''Paris Is Burning'' is a 1990 documentary about queer counterculture in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in the late 1980s.

It mainly follows several drag queens and transgender women as part of the Balls, which were essentially beauty, fashion and dance contests, that comprised their "safe space" meetings. It also largely talks about intersectionality of race and class with being LGBT+.

Featured in the film are other discussions about belonging, in which the families/houses of the Ball world are explained; imagine maybe mafia houses but really {{camp}} instead. Some of the more famous ones are [=LaBeija=], Ninja, Pendavis, Xtravaganza, [=McQueen=], Dupree, etc. As is evident, some families are named after elements of fashion, others from things that were exciting, and some fictionalized from a combination of both. Besides this, the structure and interactions of the families are discussed but also shown a lot, with many interviews about families instead focusing on the tradition that has arisen and, importantly, the sense of family that is actually provided by these people when one's own family may have rejected someone or they are living homeless.

There is also the belonging at the Balls discussed, with the idea that no matter where you may be outside or how open as yourself you may be outside, the community at the Balls is something that is rarely found in other locations. Some of the queens also mention how many young gay men who would not be able to afford food or rent would put their efforts into stealing clothes because of the life given at the Balls. Dorian Corey, Pepper [=LaBeija=], and Sol Pendavis also all separately discuss the differences between earlier Balls and the ones current at the time in the expansion of competition categories. Originally, it was quite simple, and now there are many to incorporate all styles, personas, and budgets. This makes the Balls more welcoming to more people, but they do also put on the {{nostalgia|Filter}} glasses and suggest with varying levels of animosity that it may have been better before; different reasons being preserving the roots of drag and queer culture in NYC, and that costumes should be made, not bought, with some categories allowing people with enough money to look stylish to win.

The value of winning at the Balls is another big issue, with one trans woman being consistently successful at the Balls enough that she goes into modelling and is overwhelmed at how many women are there, and how many have much better portfolios than her. This further solidifies the idea that the Balls are/should not be about the winning, but the taking part. Healthy competition is encouraged, however, as it really does further create community (e.g. family vs family) and it provides for the drag culture to really indulge in one of its creations: shade. "Throwing shade" may be a common term now, but it comes from the New York scene and its real meaning may have been bastardized slightly. Originally, it is giving a stealth or backhanded/subtle insult in a way that means the person should already be aware of the fault, or giving a downgraded compliment to imply that there is nothing better to comment on.

{{Transgender}} issues are touched on, but there is no big deal made about anybody's ambiguous identity, though it is clear that there are people identifying from all over the entire mess of gender and sexual expressions and identities in the film. Passing is brought up briefly when Pepper notes that you're one of the successful ones if you manage to make it home without being attacked in some way from people noticing the disparity in your appearance after the Ball, and several Xtravaganza sisters talk about how Venus, who is a trans woman, is very good at passing. Sadly, she evidently is not at one point and is killed in a trans- or homo-phobic attack during filming.

Emphasizing the importance of what could be seen as the underground queer culture, the film at one point interviews two young teenage boys who are ethnic minorities and queer-identifying, out walking the streets late at night. They aspire to the Balls, but we don't know what happened to them.

Also shown is vogueing, which got its start in this culture, and with the first outside mention being in a song that samples the movie (and then shortly afterwards again more famously by Music/{{Madonna}}). It is a lighter element of Camp that may have originally intended to bring people out of their shell with stylized dance moves and quick movements featuring short poses that are of the melodramatic style common to ''Vogue'' magazine. Vogue routines in the movie often have the individual dancing as if they are imagining they are a glamorous model and then combining it with showcasing their outfit and some b-boy style dance moves as still images, connected by fluid movement.

The film won the Grand Jury Prize at {{Sundance}} and was added to the National Film Registry in 2016.

!!"Paris Is Troping"

It mainly follows several drag queens and transgender women as part of the Balls -- ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'', [[TheEighties 80s edition]] -- that comprised their "safe space" meetings. It also largely talks about intersectionality of race and class with being LGBT+.

** Near the end, an interview subject says "Bring the camera over, Mr. [[Creator/CecilBDeMille De Mille]], [[Film/SunsetBlvd I'm ready for my close-up]]."

* ShoutOut: The title is a play on the book and film ''Film/IsParisBurning'', which is about the liberation of Paris from the Nazis in 1944; or possibly just to the question Hitler posed, asking if they (the Nazis) had succeeded in segregating the community (70 year old spoiler: Paris ''was'' burning, but in rebellion rather than subjugation). The theme obviously continues into this documentary, as well as the {{pun}}s on featuring the latest fashion of Paris and being "flaming gay".

Nothing to do with the film ''Film/IsParisBurning''.

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The performers range from gay men to trans women, hitting on everything in between. In 2 cases it is said that a performer is trans, in 1 case a gay man announces that he loves to dress in drag but doesn't want to be a woman, and for the rest part it is completely unstated -- including many who have had different stages of gender surgery, some who dress feminine publicly all the time, etc. But it doesn't really matter.

* BuryYourGays: Venus Xtravaganza, one of the few established trans women, is brutally attacked for this at some point whilst the documentary was being shot, providing awful juxtaposition of her features during the part talking about the need to pass and how she had to leave her biological parents for her ball family with the actual method of her death and her family mother having to call her real family.

!!Tropes found in ''Paris Is Burning''

* StealthInsult: Or rather "shade", which is stealth insults as raised to an art form in black and Latino queer communities. As [[DiscussedTrope explained by]] Dorian Corey in the documentary, "Shade is I don’t tell you you’re ugly, but I don’t have to tell you because you ''know'' you’re ugly. And that’s shade."

* StealthInsult: Or rather "shade", which is stealth insults as raised to an art form in black and Latino queer communities. As [[DiscussedTrope explained by]] Dorian Corey in the documentary, "Shade is I don’t tell you you’re ugly, but I don’t have to tell you because you know you’re ugly. And that’s shade."

The straight feminist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks bell hooks]] did write a response to the film called "Is Paris Burning?", in which she criticized it for turning the drag and ball culture into {{spectacle}}. Many queer scholars think she was, at least in this case, [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint missing the point]]. When she added that she'd been to see drag herself and that she thought it was, in other words, a load of phooey, the response was largely dismissed as being more of an opinion piece from someone who wasn't even trying to understand. Comparatively, Creator/JudithButler cites the documentary as a valuable social resource of looking at presentation and performance of gender and how different societal influences can affect these.
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%%bell hooks writes her name all lowercase, please don't change it.
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* ShoutOut: The title is a play on the book and film ''Film/IsParisBurning'', which is about the liberation of Paris from the Nazis in 1944; or possibly just to the question Hitler posed, asking if they (the Nazis) had succeeded in segregating the community (70 year old spoiler:Paris ''was'' burning, but in rebellion rather than subjugation). The theme obviously continues into this documentary, as well as the {{pun}}s on featuring the latest fashion of Paris and being "flaming gay".

* ShoutOut: The title is a play on the book and film ''Film/IsParisBurning'', which is about the liberation of Paris from the Nazis in 1944.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Solidly averted, showing members of the scene from the age of 13 through at least 70.

The straight feminist bell hooks did write a response to the film called "Is Paris Burning?", in which she criticized it for turning the drag and ball culture into {{spectacle}}. Many queer scholars think she was, at least in this case, [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint missing the point]]. When she added that she'd been to see drag herself and that she thought it was, in other words, a load of phooey, the response was largely dismissed as being more of an opinion piece from someone who wasn't even trying to understand. Comparatively, Creator/JudithButler cites the documentary as a valuable social resource of looking at presentation and performance of gender and how different societal influences can affect these.

''Paris is Burning'' is a 1990 documentary about queer counterculture in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in the late 1980s.

!!Tropes found in ''Paris is Burning''

Nothing to do with the film ''Film/IsParisBurning''. However, the straight feminist bell hooks did write a response to the film called "Is Paris Burning?", in which she criticized it for turning the drag and ball culture into {{spectacle}}. Many queer scholars think she was, at least in this case, [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint missing the point]].

* TragicAIDSStory

Nothing to do with the film ''Film/IsParisBurning''.

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity

* NooneOver50IsGay