Paris Is Burning Movie Review

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 833 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1

Page 1 of 3

Paris is burning achieved the status of controversy when it came out as a documentary that offered a white view of the black and Latino drag world. It is important to understand that Jenny Livingston, the director of the film, is a white lesbian whose sexuality and race had a bearing on the way the film was made and presented.

The film documents the lives and dreams of drag performers in balls that are organized to assess the height of realness in drag experience as presented by the performers. The performers are judged on the realness of their performance. They need to walk and act like fashion models would do on runways and represent their Houses. These houses offer a sense of belonging to gay and transgender community of New York City.

Starring people called Venus Xtravaganza, Willie Ninja and Octavia along with others, Paris is Burning is a commentary on subtle amalgamation of race, gender and class that tends to affect everyone in the houses in some way. This marginalized section of the society is presented mostly through the lens of a white lesbian woman who has been accused of presenting some "female" characters in a way that would satisfy her lesbian fantasies. (Hooks,)

Even though most of the film comes through in the form of interviews of the leading characters, still there is a sense of authenticity missing at times because the ethnographic depiction is nevertheless coming from the perspective of a white mind. "Jennie Livingston approaches her subject matter as an outsider looking in. Since her presence as white woman/lesbian filmmaker is "absent" from Paris Is Burning, it is easy for viewers to imagine that they are watching an ethnographic film documenting the life of black gay "natives" and not recognize that they are watching a work shaped and formed from a perspective and standpoint specific to Livingston.

Stuck Writing Your "Paris Is Burning" Movie Review?

View All Our Example Paris Is Burning Movie Review

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

By cinematically masking this reality (we hear her ask questions but never see her) Livingston does not oppose the way hegemonic whiteness "represents" blackness, but rather assumes an imperial overseeing position that is in no way progressive or counterhegemonic."

The film has around 20 songs which are sung by some well-known and others not so well-known singers but the most meaningful of them is by songwriter Jerry Herman called "I Am What I Am" from the play La Cage aux Folles, the ultimate Broadway transvestite musical. Artistically the movie is sound. The use of music and light is appropriate but the problem comes in the….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Paris Is Burning" (2011, April 13) Retrieved June 4, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/paris-burning-119974

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Paris Is Burning" 13 April 2011. Web.4 June. 2026. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/paris-burning-119974>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Paris Is Burning", 13 April 2011, Accessed.4 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/paris-burning-119974
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example