Choosing to end a documentary that centers around specific people with coming back to them later is a common convention in documentaries and narrative films centered around real people/events. However, in Paris is Burning this felt very anticlimactic and that it wasn’t giving the people the film centered on the ending or portrayal they deserved. Willi Ninja who was the mother of the house of Ninja is the first person featured after the time jump. There story and how they have grown and fulfilled their dreams is a sign of perseverance and a reflection on their community, after all don’t all the people featured say they want stardom and recognition, to be somebody, and yet I didn’t feel like the film delved into that. It seemed to me like this story gave the filmmaker the opportunity to end the film with celebration but instead their success is brushed past and the film ends quite sadly. Obviously the most sad part of the ending is the murder of Venus Xtravaganza. The portrayal of Venus in this film felt wrong to me, especially once it is revealed that she was brutally killed. A lot of their story focused on the unsavory ways they got by in life and their dreams of being a “complete woman”. When you take into account that she has since passed it feels exploitative that this is the way she is going to be remembered and she has no say in it. She even says at one point that she doesn’t want to go into detail about what she does for money but that is the focus instead of her being a force in her community which the interview with Angie Xtravaganza briefly mentions. I would understand focusing on her story and death if this documentary felt like it was at large focusing on the hate that trans and queer people of color receive but it all just feels muddled. Then of course the last interview is with Dorian Corey. I think this makes sense because they seem to be a figure who has been in this community for quite a while but the specific clip they used for the ending doesn’t sit right with me. The last line is Dorian talking about how as they got older their dreams shrunk but even some people knowing your name means you have changed the world. If the film had focused more on the effect of the community I think this could be good ending but because it focuses so much on what ballroom is this ending just feels sad, especially because of the tone of voice. In the Guardian article we read Jamel Prodigy, an active participant in the ballroom scene, says that, “Jennie’s film ended with a sad undertone, and I think our message is much more powerful than the impression that she left. We are an inspirational, creative and resilient community.” This was the feeling I got as well, there was the content there to show the power in the community as well as the success of it’s members but they focus on the sadness haunting them instead of the progress forward. To me it feels dishonest to who these people are, from the interviews and videos of the balls you can see these are dreamers and creative, inspired people, I find it hard to imagine they would appreciate being so characterized by there sadness and misfortune. Jamel spoke on that as well saying, “I don’t think it did justice in terms of including the point of view of the community.” It makes me very curious as to what the people who are focused on would say about this documentary now, they would not have been aware of the acclaim it would acquire and many of them passed in the aids epidemic, would they like that this is what people know them as. I think this is an important question and probably one that Livingston should have been asking more.