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Paris Is Burning Director Reveals Why She Had To Make Her Legendary Film

936-paris_is_burningThe people I met from the ball world 1) were great performers 2) had a lot to say, both about their own lives and about America and the world at large 3) Aside from being beautiful, and raucous, and a repository of great dance moves, the ball world also offered a profound look at an incredible number of issues I cared about. Like, how we live with and create our gender; how race and racism affect our lives; how class and the access to (or lack of access to) opportunity creates or inhibits our growth; how both gender identity and sexual orientation are fluid, and how homophobia, with all of its horrors, also forces people to create supportive communities and social worlds. It felt like there was so much going on the ball world that touched on everything I thought about and cared about.”

 

Director Jennie Livingston discussing her landmark documentary Paris Is Burning in an interview with Miramax ahead of the film screening at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival 24 years after it won the Grand Jury Prize

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