A look back at a benchmark documentary 'Paris Is Burning'
August 1, 2019 at 9:04PM
This look at "voguing" — called such because participants struck poses both emulating and ridiculing the high-fashion models in Vogue magazine — was considered provocative at the time and drew calls for a boycott from conservative Christians.
Now the practice is so commonplace that there's even a TV series about it, "Pose." But not everything has changed. In interviews, many of the subjects talk about their biggest wish: to be accepted by mainstream society as who they are and be able to live a "normal" life like everyone else.
The film could use a little more analysis — especially when seen three decades in retrospect — but one has to remember that then-29-year-old director Jennie Livingston was making her very first film — she hadn't even made a short film before that — and, under those circumstances, this was truly remarkable. (Showing at the Lagoon.)
The mega Marvel hit did not just bring back Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman but also quite a few familiar faces.
