Paris is Burning (Adrian Apollo)

 

I have had the pleasure of viewing Paris is Burning on multiple occasions and was looking forward to watching it again. We spoke about considering an alternative perspective of queer life other than what was shown in the documentary "How to Survive a Plague". It can often be seen that in media relating to queer culture that reaches large audiences including straight people, the queer people being shown are white. The experiences and voices of queer people of color are often overlooked or disregarded. "Paris is Burning" gives a voice back to these people, and displays a view of queer life that is missing from media like "How to Survive a Plague". 

A good amount of people that were shown in this documentary struggle financially, most struggle to obtain adequate housing. Those within these circumstances often go unrepresented, they lack support and resources. Here, community is cultivated and an outlet is created to go against the circumstances of reality. I think it is a good example of how queer people influence the designs of society as well. When queer people are in need of something within their environment to change, they will work to accomplish this feat accordingly. If one wanted to transcend the reality they were faced with, they could involve themselves in the ball circuit or join a house and create a new community for themselves. 

I always find the evolution of this culture to be interesting. I enjoy the way in which it adapted to bring inclusion across many demographics of people. Balls went from elaborate and expensive costumes resembling Las Vegas showgirls to outfits resembling movie stars or models. This was more accessible to people, one could easily obtain an outfit for these categories. If you could not afford an outfit, you would steal it and this could be incorporated into your performance. With this being more accessible to people, participation became higher and the scene flourished. 

It was depressing to see the decline of the scene towards the end. I feel as if the AIDS epidemic obviously had something to do with this, but it was not explicitly or overly mentioned. 

Each time I watch this documentary I learn something new about it. The last time I watched this in a class, my professor told me something that I found to be interesting and I figured I would share it here with you guys in case you also find it to be interesting. You remember Dorian Corey from this film? Well when she died of AIDS in 1993, a mummified body was found inside a trunk in her apartment. Supposedly, it was found in the closet that we can see within the background of her interviews for the film within her apartment. She can be seen doing her makeup in front of this closet which is ajar. My professor told us that when they filmed "Paris is Burning", the mummy is basically in the closet there and nobody knew but Dorian Corey. Tony if you are reading this I would love to hear what you have to say about this or if you have any further information on this. I found it to be very interesting because supposedly the body was Corey's abusive boyfriend and that one day she shot him when he had became drunk and violent. We won't really know the cause of his death but we know his dead mummified body was in Dorian Corey's closet so yeah you do the math. A literal slay if you will.