Paris is Burning (1990)

Directed by Jennie Livingston. Academy Entertainment, Off White Productions.

Paris is Burning is a touching and wonderfully entertaining look at the drag ball scene in 1980s New York City. African American and Hispanic gay men, drag queens and transgender women stalk the runway and compete in vogue dancing battles, part of an intensely creative subculture that has since been endlessly raided by the mainstream. It is a film about resilience and finding joy, even in the face of danger and discrimination.

Director Jennie Livingston intersperses ball scenes with intimate one-on-one interviews with the performers. By giving these outsiders a voice, she helps reflect American society back to itself. Venus Xtravaganza, a beautiful young trans woman, longs to be a spoiled, rich, white girl. Before the film is finished, she is found murdered in a hotel room, the suspected victim of client who discovered she was trans. In the years immediately after the film’s release, more than one of its stars will be lost to the AIDS epidemic.

Since the film’s release, Livingston has been plagued by criticisms that she exploited its subjects. Livingston is white and college-educated and identifies as a gender-queer lesbian. The film cost about $500,000 to make and while it did well at the box office by documentary standards, bringing in about $4 million, she has insists it did not make her rich. According to a New York Times story, several of Paris is Burning’s stars tried to sue Livingston after the film’s release, saying it fraudulently used their services. But the claims were dropped when it was discovered they had all signed standard release forms. Livingston decided to distribute $55,000 between 13 performers, based on how much time they spent on screen.

It is not usual or arguably even ethical for a documentary maker to pay her subjects, although in the case of people who are impoverished, a share of subsequent profits may be justified. The situation does though speak to the importance of any documentary maker not only getting all appropriate release forms signed, but also of having a frank conversation with potential subjects about what will involved and how they will benefit, if at all.

There are also interesting arguments about whether the film helped enable the cultural appropriation of the ball scene. Some of those points are outlined here.