Loading
Paris Is Burning
Having a ball… Wish you were here
Genres
Documentary
Overview
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
Details
Budget
$500000
Revenue
$3800000
Runtime
78 min
Release Date
1991-03-13
Status
Released
Original Language
English
Vote Count
520
Vote Average
8
Cast
Meet the talented actors who bring the movie to life.
Pepper LaBeija
Self
Octavia St. Laurent
Self
Venus Xtravaganza
Self
Dorian Corey
Self
Willi Ninja
Self
Paris Dupree
Self
Freddie Pendavis
Self
Sol Williams Pendavis
Self
Junior LaBeija
Self
Angie Xtravaganza
Self
Carmen Xtravaganza
Self
Brooke Xtravaganza
Self
Kim Pendavis
Self
Sandy Ninja
Self
Avis Pendavis
Self
Andre Christian
Self
Stevie St. Laurent
Self
Bianca Xtravaganza
Self
Danny Xtravaganza
Self
David Xtravaganza
Self
David Ian Xtravaganza
Self
David the Father Xtravaganza
Self
Eileen Ford
Self (uncredited)
Jose Guitierez
Self (uncredited)
Shari Headley
Self (uncredited)
Similar Movies
Explore movies similar to this one that you might also enjoy.
7.1
Making 'The Shining'
Directed and edited by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick, this film offers a look behind the scenes during the making of The Shining.
1980-10-04 | en
6.5
Saroyanland
Saroyanland is a docu-drama focusing on the journey of famous writer William Saroyan to the birthplace of his Armenian family Bitlis, in Turkey in 1964. While retaking the same road, the film aims to understand Saroyan's unique attitude to belonging, witnessing the self-discovery of a man who followed the traces of his Armenian ancestors.
2013-12-06 | tr
5.0
Don't Breathe
Don’t Breathe is a dark comedy set in Georgia that follows the tribulations of a middle-aged man, Levan, who is suddenly led to question his existence because of a routine medical examination. It sends him into a downward spiral of paranoia and doubt as he fumbles his way through the theatre of the absurd that we call life. Using humour and a playful tone, the film examines the fragility of human nature, when our bearings get lost and our imagination takes over, highlighting our common fears, doubts, hopes and resilience.
2014-09-04 | en
7.4
Control Room
A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.
2004-01-15 | ar
8.6
Nirvana: Unplugged In New York
A live album by American rock band Nirvana, the album features an acoustic performance recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City on 18 November 1993, for the television series MTV Unplugged.
1993-12-16 | en
10.0
Sister Aimee
At the peak of her immense popularity in the 1920s, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was drawing larger crowds to her revivals than those of P.T. Barnum or Harry Houdini. This chapter of "American Experience" paints a vivid portrait of the controversial and charismatic religious figure. Credited with mainstreaming religion in American culture, Sister Aimee created one of the country's first Christian radio stations, among other accomplishments.
2007-04-02 | en
0.0
The Sunrise Storyteller
Kasha Sequoia Slavner, aka The Sunrise Storyteller, is an 18-year old filmmaker, photographer, entrepreneur, young global leader and peace advocate. As a concerned high school student, disillusioned and outraged by the negativity and powerlessness she felt as a consumer of mainstream media, Kasha was compelled to find an alternative narrative. On her 16th birthday on an ambitious mission to travel the world for six months with her mom, camera in hand and no clear road map, she finds herself intersecting with the lives of people determined to rise above adversity.
2017-04-01 | en
0.0
Black Nations/Queer Nations?
This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid and Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political and social situations of diasporic lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered peoples. The video brings together the highlights of the conference and draws connections between popular culture and contemporary black gay media production. The participants discuss various topics: Black and queer identity, the shortcomings of Black nationalism, and homophobia in Black communities. Drawing upon works such as Isaac Julien's "The Attendant" and Jocelyn Taylor's "Bodily Functions", this documentary illuminates the importance of this historic conference for Black lesbians and gays.
1995-01-01 | en
8.0
Pure Love: The Voice of Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald's voice is a phenomenon and unrivalled to this day. She had the perfect pitch and perfect intonation. Ella's voice spanned three octaves, her phrasing seemed effortless. There is almost no style of music, in which she did not excel, and her numerous - now legendary - recordings of the 'Great American Songbook' with pieces of US composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Harald Arlen, Cole Porter or Duke Ellington, remained a benchmark for the "right" interpretation of those songs for generations of singers. In the film the focus will be on the voice of Ella Fitzgerald. We want to unravel the secret of her voice through many different people (musicians, singers, critics etc.), who will tell about what impact her voice had on them and still has. We want to learn more about Ella´s life to find out what made her sing like she did and only she could.
2017-02-19 | en
7.6
When We Were Kings
It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.
1996-10-25 | en
5.7
Homotherapy: A Religious Sickness
In 2019, some still consider homosexuality as a disease that needs to be cured. Focusing on movements with roots in the United States, which draw on both religion and psychiatry to justify so-called conversion therapies, an investigation into the devastating consequences of certain practices that seem to successfully avoid any control by European public authorities.
2019-11-19 | fr
0.0
The Art of Destruction
The unique music documentary about the legendary thrash metal band Destruction.
2025-03-06 | de
6.7
T
A film crew follows three grieving participants of Miami’s annual T Ball, where folks assemble to model R.I.P. t-shirts and innovative costumes designed in honor of their dead.
2019-08-04 | en
6.2
Germany in Autumn
The film does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of Germany during the late 1970s. The movie covers the two-month time period during 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped and later murdered by the left-wing terrorists known as the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction). The businessman had been kidnapped in an effort to secure the release of the original leaders of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. When the kidnapping effort and a plane hijacking effort failed, the three most prominent leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all committed suicide in prison. It has become an article of faith within the left-wing community that these three were actually murdered by the state.
1978-03-03 | de
6.3
Persecution Blues: the Battle for the Tote!
In 2010, the iconic Tote Hotel – last bastion of Melbourne’s vibrant music counterculture – was forced to close by unfair laws. Filmed over 7 years, “Persecution Blues” depicts the struggle of more than 20,000 fans – and the bands who inspire them – to preserve their history and protect their future, and puts the audience on the front line of an epic-scale culture war.
2011-07-28 | en
6.3
Olly Alexander: Growing Up Gay
Documentary in which Years and Years frontman Olly Alexander explores the mental health issues faced by members of the LGBT+ community.
2017-07-18 | en
3.0
Lady Like
In this rags to riches origin story, Lady Camden struggles to manage the demands of her freshly minted international fame, while Rex is forced to come to terms with the troubling childhood he left behind in Camden which drove him to so desperately seek joy, fantasy and escape through the performing arts.
2024-09-06 | en
5.0
Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide
A documentary on the massacre of Planas in the Colombian east plains in 1970. An Indigenous community formed a cooperative to defend their rights from settlers and colonists, but the government organized a military operation to protect the latter and foreign companies.
1971-06-01 | en
5.6
How to Cook Your Life
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.
2007-05-10 | de
0.0
How to Squash a Squat
1989, New York City's Alphabet City and East Village. A year after the Tompkins Square Park Riot, squatters and their community allies try to stop the demolition of their building after an arson. Police forces occupy the neighborhood while the demolition continues. A portrait of an East Village that is no more. An homage to the voices and sounds of a neighborhood before its gentrification.
1989-01-01 | en