As a documentary film that recorded the history and development of ball games in New York city in the 80s, Paris is Burning reveals the obstacles faced by the group that is “black, male and gay” from the very beginning. The whole documentary uses the Ball game, the party that people from this community would get dressed, do makeups, and gather in the ballroom for the contest of Drag Queen,as the key, surrounding its form, origin and development, revealing the discrimination, non-acceptance, and pain faced by the black gay community in the United States. The Ball is an important event to them: an interviewee, who is the audience of the ball, says that if football and basketball are games that drive straight people crazy, ball is gay’s carnival. They do not have to hide their gay identity in the ballroom, but to show themselves openly, to show beauty and seduction, desire and dream. The documentary presents this through the construction of group portraits, using plenty of long takes at the beginning that includes different audiences’ reactions with enjoyable expressions and enhances the atmosphere using cheerful, dominant music and highly saturated tonality on frame. 

The documentary utilizes series of “black talk”, such as “read”, “shade” and “category” as the subtitle to complete the interpretation of these terminology, not only serves as guide and introduction function to the audience who knows little about their culture, but also embedded the struggles this group face within each subtitle. Realness is one of the criterias for grading in a ball contest, which judges on how real the participants reveal the reality of a given situation. With the help of this role play, the black gay men can express their understanding and feelings about different lives, especially the rich, decent, and dignified lives of the white elites, which is the life they are eager but can hardly reach due to social stereotypes and the malice of society. Just like the interviewee mentions, in the ball, you are a marvel if you capture and present the white way of life. This reveals exactly their dreams of a rich and equal life as the white, and the hopelessness of achieving it. House is another impressive concept to me, which this word originates to represent a “family” in their community. Different from the families based on blood relationship, the families here are mostly founded by the famous Drag Queens, forming into an emotionally-connected small cohort. In this serie, it introduced the plight of the black queers being rejected and abandoned by their biological family members due to gender identity, thus eagerly seeking for belonging and support from such a “home”. Everyone who gets interviewed in the film all look proud of their “houses”, representing their joy for finding a place where people understand and love them.

But under such a centered community, people also face a dilemma that requires hard decision making. From the concept of Realness, we can tell that they still admire the happiness of mainstream straight society, for being rich, accepted by social norms, and independent. The model Octavia tries to make money to free herself, dreaming of “living a normal, happy life”, having a lover and adopting children. Instead of just being a Drag Queen, she wants “a brand new life”. Venus Xtravaganza envies a spoiled white girl getting married in a church in a white dress. Their pride is not impenetrable because they are still, at some point of their lives, stuck in the mainstream gaze. Other older gay men, such as Dorian Corey and Pepper LaBeija, have none of the angst of youth. They seem to have an insight into the subtle relationship between their identity and life, believing that drag queen can also be a lifelong career, and old drag queen is never a synonym for broken and miserable.

The documentary condenses with the bright tone throughout, presenting the idea of idealism, which praises and emphasizes on the essence of the bright side in the gay circle of that era. Though the overall environment for minority groups at that time lacked inclusiveness, the optimism and vitality displayed by the groups was dazzling. It is true that the descendants of Willi Ninja can easily fly to Paris perform their proud voguing in the fashion capital later on, but the audience is no longer a ballroom player who knows what they are doing and celebrates as their fundamental tells: “to be who you want to be”.The eyes of modern spectators with a mentality of curiosity and entertainment instead. So my question is, are we approaching Paris closer nowadays, or pushing it further away?