Paris is Burning

It’s now 25-years since Jennie Livingstone’s ground-breaking film about the New York drag ball scene of the late 1980s was released. Its ethnographic style of documentary film making produced a multi-levelled exploration of a subculture in African American and Latino cultures.

Through candid one-on-one interviews the film offers insight into the lives and struggles of its participants: racism, homophobia, transphobia, HIV and poverty as well as the strength, pride, and humour they maintain to survive in a "rich, white world."

Paris Is Burning is a fascinating look at the elaborately structured ball scene that launched voguing, while Madonna was still a Material Girl. 25 years on, what does the film tell us about the history of gay and trans identities and cultures that can help us understand ourselves today?