Paris is Burning

Children of the House of Chanel, the House of Saint Laurent, of Ninja and Xtravaganza, the Latina and African American voguers and attendees of the monthly fashion balls, compete for trophies and cash prizes in Harlem and Brooklyn in this "anthropological" documentary by Jennie Livingston of the New York transgender subculture.

Members of rival Houses compete in categories such as High Fashion Eveningwear, Face, Model's Body, and most serious of all, "Realness." In the Realness category, drag queens and transgenderists attempt to pass for real women and butch queens for real, that is heterosexual men. As one of the judges explains, "If you can pass the trained eye and not give away the fact that you're gay, that's when it's Real."

Paris is Burning is a celebration of this subculture but the contradictions between the actual experiences of class and race oppression and sexual exploitation of the Children with the glamorous escape at the balls was sharply brought home when Venus Xtravaganza, who passed successfully as white as well as a real woman, was brutally murdered by a John who discovered otherwise.