Antiracist Accountability x Pride: "Paris is Burning" for "Kiki"

 Hi friends,

This Pride month, as with last year's, I want to uplift Black and Brown trans and gay people.  While last year I talked about Marsha P. Johnson's gargantuan influence on the movements for gay and trans rights, this year I want to share with you two documentaries about thriving enclaves of safety, joy, and artistry that gay and trans people of color have created in New York City and their evolution through the decades.  

The first is the electrifying classic "Paris is Burning" (1990).

The second is the unofficial epilogue to "Paris is Burning", "Kiki" (2016).

Viewed together, the films offer time-traveling front row seats in the uproarious performance halls and intimate apartments of New York City's gorgeous, resilient, burning bright ball scene.  

"Paris is Burning" introduces us to New York's ball culture and some of the major houses it was comprised of in the late 1980s.  The film reveals the origins of appropriated terms still used today (such as "throwing shade"), but more importantly centers the deep love, ingenuity, and vitality fostered in a community assailed by seemingly endless acts of individual and systemic violence.  Its beauty and joy is made ever sweeter by the heartbreak at the film's conclusion, when the audience learns how many of the film's participants lost their lives to illness and other manifestations of the brutality of oppression.  The poignancy lent to "Paris is Burning" by the ephemerality of its performances and, ultimately, many of its performers lends an enduring, weighty ache to an already indelible film.

As its unofficial sister film, "Kiki" updates us on the state of this community by focusing on the young people who are part of the kiki scene--essentially ballroom culture for teenagers.  "Kiki" shows us that in some ways, things have improved since "Paris is Burning": kiki performers have access to more resources and, in some cases, broader support from family and loved ones than their '80's ballroom forebears.  But of course, societally there is still so far to go until kids in the kiki scene gain the supports, resources, safety, and respect they richly deserve.

These truly are wonderful, uplifting, inspiring, and deeply human movies.  If you haven't already seen them both, I strongly recommend them and I hope you enjoy them!

You can watch "Paris is Burning" here.

You learn more about "Kiki" here and watch it here.

Perhaps obviously, I gave both of these glorious, gorgeous movies a 5.

Happy Pride!

{Heart}