Protest surrounding a planned screening of the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning on June 26 in Brooklyn has prompted arts organization BRIC and the filmmaker herself to reevaluate the program.
The movie’s director, Jennie Livingston, and musician/artist JD Samson were invited to join in the screening as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! events, and many were upset that no queer and trans people of color or representatives from the thriving ballroom community that the film documents were asked to participate.
PIB introduced the world to a subculture that had never received mainstream attention, and with that exposure came questions of exploitation and appropriation. Livingston, a white female, was (and still is) sometimes criticized for gaining fame by telling a story which some feel wasn’t hers to tell.
That these ideas are still being debated is a testament to the power of the film, and love it or not, you don’t have to look far in gay culture to find its impact. Take ‘throwing shade’ for instance:
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Livingston defends her outsider status as such: “I’m white, yes, but I’m an openly queer, female director, and I can’t think of anything more out of the mainstream. I’m sorry, but I do not think I have the same relationship to the ruling class as a straight man,” and she certainly has a point.
A change.org petition titled Cancel Celebrate Brooklyn/BRIC’s screening of Paris is Burning & End the Exploitation of the Ballroom Community and TQPOC! gained traction, and reads in part:
While Jennie Livingston and Mirimax [sic] profited immensely off of this anthropological foray into the lives of low-income TQPOC ballroom members, through years of lies and dishonesty, Livingston was able to use people for the sake of her own fame and has been living off of their stories ever since. In the meantime, most of the original cast has been murdered or has died in poverty. This is exploitation of a vulnerable population who trusted Jennie to do right by them.
…Jennie Livingston, YOU NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND BE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE COMMUNITIES YOU’VE HARMED WITH THIS DOCUMENTARY. You need to:
– Apologize to the affected parties listed
– Use the platform that you’ve gained through our stories to speak out against the atrocities that are killing us daily. Violence against trans women of color specifically, like the still unsolved murder of Venus Xtravaganza, is still rampant. Share your limelight with people and organizations doing work that benefits the communities in the film.
– Pay retribution to the survivors and communities of the people you exploited in Paris is Burning with all future proceeds.
To which Livingston responded:
I’m grateful the conversations here encouraged me to deeply consider my relationships, both to surviving members of the Paris is Burning cast and to the TQPOC community at large. As we move forward towards the 25th anniversary of the film, I need to keep talking with the cast members themselves about how they feel about the film and its continued distribution. And if they’re interested, about how can the cast and I work together to benefit the community?
Last year Junior Labeija and I did a screening to raise money for the Ali Forney Center (which serves homeless queer youth). So many of the people in the film are gone: what are we empowered to do to continue their legacy and honor their memories, to benefit ballgoers, and to fight violence against trans and queer people of color?
BRIC also put out a statement:
We have now done what we should have done when we initially planned the event: reached out to QTPOC organizations and individuals, and members of the ballroom community, to gain their insights and hear their ideas for the program. We apologize for not having done so earlier.
After this consultation, the revised line-up, which we hope to finalize in the next few days, will include artists and programming from the QTPOC and ballroom communities.
Some of the protesters aren’t satisfied. Ashley Love, a journalist and a transsexual and intersex advocate, found both the statements from Livingston and BRIC to be inadequate. “There’s no mention of the petition’s mention of trans-misogyny, JD Samson’s association with the anti-trans-feminine slur tr*nny and Michigan Music Festival, and BRIC excluding the term ‘transphobia’ in event description,” she told Queerty. “This protest is more than resisting Brooklyn gentrification, it’s for reparations for the misled film subjects and against transphobia”
Tell us what you think in the comments.
H/t: Gawker
Cam
So in other words, this group would rather have zero attention on that group when the movie stops getting shown.
The movie is wonderful and introduces people to people and places and a snapshot in time that you have never seen.
But it does seem like Trans Activists always default to attacking anything inside the community rather than actually taking on the bigotry outside of it. For example, Parker Mollow attacked RuPaul, then after the show stopped using the words she claimed infuriated her what did Parker Molloy do? Continue to attack RuPaul, and now what has happened? The show that used to feature multiple transgender women, and give them a stage mysteriously has not had any on since.
So Parker, did you help the Trans Community by taking away a platform that used to feature them?
Or another example, on the day that Marriage became legal in New York Trans Activists used that to attack Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals. They could celebrate for one single day, or attack right wingers, nope, just another attack on lesbians, gays, or bis.
So they continue to attack here, what will they get? The film goes away.
I’m curious if this group has attacked the major studios for it’s lack of diversity in film. My guess would be it never even occurred to them to do so.
Giancarlo85
P@Cam: Parker Molloy attacks even others trans people. I don’t know why RuPaul pays attention to that troll. If my memory serves me correctly, I recall Parker throwing out death threats to another trans person.
QJ201
PiB, has turned into “this is what gay is for black and latinos”
I’ve worked with gay youth, mostly black and latino. They don’t know Stonewall or even when AIDS hit, but they know PIB and how to vogue and be bitchy shady little queens…even though NOT one of them would survive a read from true ballroom queen in any big city.
DarkZephyr
I have never seen this film, does it feature Trans women?
Bob LaBlah
“Pay retribution to the survivors and communities of the people you exploited in Paris is Burning with all future proceeds.”
What a crock of shit. I ask this question: Why are NONE of these outraged “activist” asking themselves why didn’t ANY of them try to do something like this THEMSELVES?
Sorry folks, I see nothing but jealousy and pettiness in this. It seems ODD that the director didn’t look down the road after the movie became a hit (damn near everyone I knew at the time saw it) and think “maybe I should keep track of at least ONE of these people so when a 10th, 15th……..anniversary comes around I can bring them along to show just what they have done with their lives.” In my old fashion way of thinking I would have done something like that and continued to ignore this “exploitation b/s as she has done. The only thing she did was ASK them if they were willing to have the balls filmed. And at least one of them agreed. If you look at the movie you will see you are NOT dealing with rocket scientist. That is why I think it would be helpful to show just what some of them have done with their lives to show the younger ones walking around 24/7 wearing nothing more than a dress might not be the way to success while getting job skills might be. Like it or not we must all work to support ourselves. This IS America after all.
The frustration surrounding/accompanying the “ballroom community” does not shock me at all because of how disorganized it is. The kid who just had it blasted all over the country and world about his HIV status participated in BQ Sex Siren but barring being a “member” no one knows when these events are taking place unless your in the “know”. If you have a class act then organize, advertise and market what you have. What they have is obviously a splintered community that needs to get its act together and admit that mistakes were made amongst themselves more than their being “exploited” by someone who did nothing that a SMART one of them should have done.
Clark35
@DarkZephyr: Yes.
I’ve heard that the people who were filmed in PIB were not happy with the director and how she got fame, and money while they got nothing. So it makes sense that trans activists would feel the same way or jump on this bandwagon. Plus the director is a moron since she did not understand that the opulence scene was making fun of wealthy people.
Charlie in Charge
@DarkZephyr: It’s quite good and is available for streaming on Netflix.
brn2snap
@QJ201
I can’t help but laugh at your comment because of how true it is to some degree. Made my day so thanks 😉
Anyway, I can’t believe their trying to boycott the film considering it has such an amazing following and continues to have a following. As a gay man of color, I can’t even begin to say what this film brought into my life. A sense of self, strength and just a lot of information that wasn’t present to me at 16. I feel like these protesters have a point because the films subjects should have recieved some kind of royalties but I also feel that boycotting the film NOW is pointless when it sounds like the films proceeds are being used for the YOUTH, which is where it should go because damn, without this film being present within the moltitudes of films that portray the community in such an amazing way, then the kids who are in the worsts kinds of situations will have no examples or people to look up to or even a future that says I’m waiting to be lived. LOL..got a little deep there but I love the film SO much!
jayj150
So, Jennie Livingston, a gender-nonconforming out woman, gets attacked by the transcrowd because “she is an outsider”, but Bruce Jenner, someone who has led his entire life as a privileged, white, heterosexual man, who has done NOTHING for sexual minorities(or for anyone, really, other than himself and his money-hungry family), someone who used more than half of his coming-out interview time to emphasize that he was NOT gay and that he was a Republican, is hailed as a “LGBT hero!”. Interesting.
jayj150
@Giancarlo85: Parker Molloy is massively supported by other transactivist and transpeople in general. It’s not about “Rupaul paying attention”, Molloy got trans-controlled Glaad to all but mandate changes to Rupaul’s show. Molloy is not a rarity in the transcommunity, he’s a perfect example of their hateful, divisive antics.
Tracy Pope
Just one thing to add to the reasons why I’m finding myself less and less inclined to care. When the trans community decided that a slang term meaning “Transvetite” was about them I started to question it. Now the ballroom community says – “Pay retribution to the survivors and communities of the people you exploited in Paris is Burning with all future proceeds.” They feel exploited. Okay. I’ve seen the documentary. All that sass and no brains to fight exploitation until now? I’m beginning to sound like Bryan/Jason et al and that’s bad. I’ll stop here.
McShane
It’s free, and it hasn’t happened yet. All they did was secure a venue and hire a DJ. 7,400 people already RSVP’D. But I definitely see why people are pissed that not a single queer person of color, was invited to speak on the panel. Come on, they can’t find anyone from any of the houses? Really? Kevin Aviance?
@jayj150: *she’s. She’s a perfect example. I can’t stand the motherf®cker, but she is a she.
Merv
“Pay retribution to the survivors and communities of the people you exploited”
Retribution – Noun – Punishment that is considered to be morally right and fully deserved.
Sounds good. How should the director punish them?
Wooly
I couldn’t even finish the article. What a bunch of whiners.
Sansacro
Hmm, J.L. is hardly rich from the film, and most of my NYC urban community college students have no idea who she is nor have ever heard of the film. Important documentary, in my life: bracing, poignant, and rousing. But the extent to which the filmmakers have attempted to include trans people in the screenings and public discussions of the film is worth examining and correcting, as the filmmakers have acknowledged. Otherwise, the depths of rage and hurt felt by the most outspoken trans critics of PIB need a more productive outlet.
Cordula
@jayj150: Deliberately misgendering a fellow queer person is incredibly dickish, regardless of how you feel about them.
Hillers
Well, according to Wikipedia, thirteen of the participants were paid $55,000. Not bad for 1990, nor for just allowing your regular li’l old life to be filmed. Yes, it may have grossed more, but it’s the studio that always reaps the major monetary benefits, never the talent.
mgkbus
What a load of crap! This movies is so old and people are now complaining? Get real and move forward, folks!
Bob LaBlah
@Hillers: $55k a piece or they all had to split the $55k? I do remember someone filing a lawsuit but I thought it was thrown out because of lack of merit.
jar
What a load of crap. I am so tired of the faux outrage of the armchair commandos. Are their lives so empty that they’ve got nothing better to do than create excuses for wailing and rending garments? It seems these days the minute you hear the word “community” you know there’s going to be lashing out at some “other.” Rarely does the invocation of that word reflect a coming together. These whingers should be rejected or ignored.
It is not customary for subjects of documentaries to receive royalties. There was no exploitation by Livingston as she did not veer from customary practice. And all of this was hashed out 25 years ago.
The problem with the film, IMO, is that Livingston intends to critique American cultural biases toward the rich and beautiful, yet the film recreates the same hierarchy by focusing the camera’s attention on the “stars” of the ballroom set. No time is spent with those who never win (or rarely win). In the end, she only reinforces that which she wants the audience to question. Accordingly, the film fails on a very basic level. Nevertheless, it’s still a valuable document of a rich and affirming cultural phenomenon.
Rudy Renteria
Ricky Ramon
Low Country Boy
@jar: I have to agree. Jenny Livingston did not receive “fame and fortune” from Paris is Burning. The very, very sad thing about that documentary is that the vast majority of the original subjects are now dead, mostly from HIV/AIDS. Stop crapping all over her! A person, who makes a documentary, should be detached from the subject. I don’t think it would have been as powerful if the director grew up in the NYC ball scene. Sorry.
AJ Lewis
WHY??? These complaints should complain to our US Senators about EVERYTHING!
Tracy Pope
@Merv: I chose to ignore that; deciding maybe restitution and retribution might mean the same thing in the vernacular… (nah, I’m just being a snarky b***h!)
walter aviance
I am from this time and was in NYC shortly after. I knew many of the cast and you are right, many past from the HIV epidemic that rocked our world. Few others from health related issues with rare exceptions (Venus Xtrava RIP). The movie was garbage and I only have watched to see some familiar faces I miss dearly. The movie was a glimpse at the ballroom community who is not just trans. Sounds like people being pissed off because none of us back then would have thought a documentary on the ballroom culture would have produced coin.
If you signed a release to have your likeness used in the film, then you have no leg to stand on because you agreed to it. How about “No Miss Livingstone, I do not want to be in your movie?” Would this even be an issue if the movie hadn’t done as well as it has? Probably not.
The actual seriousness behind the film, the elephant in the room still exists today and the surface barely broken in the film. Addiction ruled most of us at that time. We used drugs and alcohol to kill the pain of being alone, of being outcasts. Addiction along with being homeless had many staying on couches of friends, tricks, or weeklys. Out on street corners trying to get money so we could eat or feel good before going to the balls or the clubs. Thinking that alcohol or drugs made us more fierce or we could turn it better. I lost more than a few friends to depression and suicide or overdose or putting themselves into dangerous situations because of this. Yet we want to talk about rights and paychecks when my kids are losing their lives on a daily basis. How about housing opportunities, treatment, and job skills training?
btw, this debate is not new. Been around for years much like the scandal of the Latex balls.
Bob LaBlah
@walter aviance: Thank you for your comment. I knew if I waited long enough a voice of reason would appear. I lived all over the country, remember the Christopher street pier when it amounted to nothing more than an open air bathhouse that if you weren’t careful you could fall thru the holes the plagued it and end up in the water. Two Potato, Kellers….the memories just keep coming. Nearly every thing and one have changed except this “crew” of ne’er do wells. NYC was a mess but was soon on its back to sanity, thanks to Dinkins, who was the man who set it all up for Giulliani to come in and take the glory for it.
It is obvious that the “leaders” of this “community” are as backward and ignorant now as they were then. Why the hell they can’t see that if they organized the damn things they might be sitting on a goldmine thanks to paying customers who might have never been to something like that? Are they aware that NYC is LOADED with tourist with dollars in their pockets 24/7, 365 days a year? But hey, as I said earlier, they are not rocket scientists. I doubt if several of them paid attention to ANYTHING they were being taught in school. The type who will blame the teacher for their not learning. They come off as nothing more than loud mouthed “Miss Gurl” screaming homeless ass queens with nothing going for them but stolen makeup and ball gowns and winter stints on Rikers Island. It was disgusting then and still is.
judysdad
Ridiculous. And tell me: How did trans people ever get lumped in with the “gay community”? Many of them (like Bruce Jenner) don’t even consider themselves gay. I know two trans women who do not have nor want to have anything to do with gay men or lesbians. Someone clue me in.
charmin88
Don’t take this the wrong way, but they will probably never find Venus Xtravaganza’s murder because he is probably Already dead more than likely. The 80’s and 90’s was during the HIV/AIDS epidemic ( which by the way is still claiming life’s till this day) The Guy who murdered Venus that night probably continued to pick up prostitutes probably caught the Virus or already had it and didn’t know and eventually died anonymous. Most of the people back then trickin Or Picking Up Tricks Had A Rude A Wakening the AIDS virus was taking names and dropping people like Flies left and right. Of course back then know one new what was going on. That just a theory on the unsolved murder. People who picked up hustlers didn’t use protection back then. May you R.I.P. Beautiful Venus.
Giancarlo85
@jayj150: Keep subscribing to your bullshit which you spew out on here. Molloy has threatened another trans person and told them to go drink bleach. SHE isn’t massively supported by the transcommunity and has done a FINE JOB alienating. You don’t know shit about trans people so I don’t know why you keep going on with your rubbish.
You’re a disrespectful little man who doesn’t care for anything but yourself. You misgender people and insult them when they don’t conform to your stupid fucking gender norms.
Jacob23
It is wonderful to see 2 equally vile and evil groups, trans activists and “queers” – both of which are toxic to LGB people – attack one another. T activists and Qs are vicious, amoral and often suffer from mental and mood disorders, so it should be fun to watch.
Trans activists are attacking Ms. Livingston for the same reason that they constantly attack LGBs, including gay filmmaker Diego Luna, and progressive straight folks like Martha Plimpton, Piers Morgan and Roseanne Barr. The reason is that they get off on making other people cower and beg before them. Their bouts of outrage are almost always contrived and their demands make no sense. They don’t attack in order to right an actual wrong. They attack in order to feel powerful. So, they go after those who have been friendly or compassionate towards them, because those are the people most likely to cower and apologize. For the same reason, you will rarely if ever see trans activists going after Bryan Fischer or James Dobson or Ted Cruz or the Tea Party. Those folks don’t care about trans activists’ rage or their demands and won’t beg and plead for forgiveness. There’s no thrill in that. So they go after a queer independent filmmaker who spent her time, energy and money on a documentary about crossdressing youths in 1990. These Ts and Qs deserve each other.
martinbakman
Just seemed like rhetoric. Everyone’s a drama queen.
spiffy
If they wait for insiders to tell their own stories, many documentaries would not have gotten made at all.
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: More lies and vitriol from the nasty jacob troll who sounds more like a conservative fanatic. this idiot would do a lot damage to the LGBTQQI community if he had any say. Good thing nasty people like him have no say.
Jacob is the one suffering from mental problems and he projects his stupidity onto other people. Again there is no such thing as the LGB community. You have no right to push people out of the movement who have done more than your lazy ass.
Imperialist
You know, I’m really, really starting to dislike trans folk.
Jacob23
@Giancarlo85: lol! Of course there’s an LGB community silly and even you acknowledge that when you toss around letter salad like LGBTQQI. All of the contrived letter variations used by you and your fellow “queers” contain LGB. The only issue is why these other letters are tacked on. Do Ts and Qs and Is share a common, innate trait with LGBs? No they don’t. Ts and Qs and Is can have any sexual orientation, and most are straight. They were only added on by fiat. A political decree from unelected activists in the 1990s. Sorry, but that doesn’t create a community or a people and LGBs are under no obligation to recognize it. If Ts and Qs and Is want to be part of the LGB movement, that’s great. We always welcome allies. But they have no interest in being allies because they don’t actually give a rat’s behind about LGBs and instead see us as a source of money and free labor.
kansasteddybear
@Imperialist:
I don’t dislike trans folk, I have started to hate all LGBTQ (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP or whatever alphabet soup we are supposed to recognize these days) activists of any stripe. The more acceptance we are getting in the wider community, the angrier and they seem to get and the more they are likely to start attacking our supporters for not being sensitive. After a while, it gets old.
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: There is no such thing. That is what you made up at the top of your head. you are a demented person with major personality flaws. You don’t get to define shit and you can’t exclude trans people who have been there since day one. And in Stonewall there were trans people. You are a shortsighted hater who even bashes on feminine gay men.
Stupid ignorant clowns like you are the problem.
Giancarlo85
@kansasteddybear: You know what I find tiring? Closeted whiny queens like you and Jacob always complaining.
808Skinhead
@jayj150: why drag Bruce Jenner into this mess? He’s absolutely nothing to do with this article. No hailing any kind of hero, and not every trans person has to be “gay” first. Stick to the facts please.
808Skinhead
@jar: yes exactly. And also, let’s not forget that the subjects of the documentary weren’t forced to be participants. They all signed contracts and releases. No one was exploited here.
I should say the subjects are being exploited but not by Livingston and her film. They are being exploited the these “activists” now with their pointless agendas.
Jacob23
@Giancarlo85: lol! Sorry, amigo there was only 1 individual at Stonewall who years later identified as trans; at the time of the riot this person – a drug addicted prostitute – did not so identify. A few participants were drag queens, but drag queens aren’t part of the transgender umbrella. You really should know what the “T” includes since you consider yourself part of the same “people” as them. Why can’t you respect trans people enough to learn about how they define themselves? It’s not their job to educate privileged cisgender people like you about Trans 101 issues!
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: You are a historical revisionist and a massive liar. There were a lot more than just one individual at Stonewall who was trans. You keep trying and keep failing. You don’t know anything. You really are pathetic. You are not in the position to define anyone for anyone because you hate a lot of people. You hate feminine gay men and you made that very clear. You also hate trans people and you made that point time and time again. So let me get this right… you hate gay men who don’t conform to gender norms like a blockhead like you, and you hate trans people who don’t conform to gender norms?
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: By the way, I am genderqueer. And I’m not going to define it to a jackass like you.
Kip Hurwitz
Jason Queen
Jacob23
@Giancarlo85: I don’t need you to define genderqueer. Unlike you, i take the time to learn about and understand other people, even those different from myself. BTW, you are the one who brought up Stonewall, not me. So if you claim that there was more than 1 tr@nny there, name ’em. You can’t because there was only the 1, and even “she” didn’t identify as such until years later. In any event, I don’t think it matters one iota who happened to be in a particular crowd on a particular street corner 46 years ago. There were straight people in that crowd too. One straight man in particular, who later went on to some fame, played an important role that first night. But that doesn’t mean that gays are now obligated to identify as “LGBS people.” It’s reactionary the way you obsess about this event in 1969 and feel that the details – real or invented – must dictate all of our moral and logical choices in 2015.
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: You don’t take the time to learn anything. You are ignorant in this subject to an extreme. You don’t know anything trans people at all. And you are wrong about Stonewall. You are a historical revisionist and a liar. And you are so clueless about what happened that night. But I get it. You are trying to conform to heterosexist norms because you have a great deal of bigotry towards others. You express contempt towards those who are different than you. There is no such as the LGB community. You don’t get to refine facts and history.
Our moral and logical choices? Little child, you don’t get to tell what others should or shouldn’t do. You aren’t any better than the Christian right. You lie about history, you distort and you clearly don’t know what the fuck you are talking about. So go ahead… Keep demanding yet fail to provide any real facts of your own.
Giancarlo85
I still can’t believe you say you take time to learn about others. What the fuck are you talking about? All you do on here belittle people who don’t fit into your ideas of men and women should be like. You hate those who don’t conform to your ideas of gender norms. This is why you are a bigot.
Jacob23
@Giancarlo85: Still waiting on that list of all the transgenders who were at Stonewall. /Looks at watch, taps foot/
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: I’m still waiting to prove your “one person” claim. You’re a hypocritical idiot.
Here are some facts for your little brain:
http://davidatlanta.com/2012/06/putting-t-stonewall-transgender-community-shaped-stonewall/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/18/stonewall-trans-issues-neglected-progressives
This article from the Guardian actualy describes how trans people dominated the Stonewall riots.
You see… I don’t subscribe to idiotic transphobic historical revisionism like you.
You don’t know anything and you don’t understand people different than you.