The classic American documentary, Paris Is Burning will tomorrow close the curtains on the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination’s (SASOD) will close the curtains on its tenth annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film festival, Painting the Spectrum 10.
Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s and directed by Jennie Livingston, Paris chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it, a release said.
Many members of the ball culture community consider Paris Is Burning to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City drag balls, as well as a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America. The film explores the elaborately-structured ball competitions in which contestants, adhering to a very specific category or theme, must “walk” (much like a fashion model’s runway) and subsequently be judged on criteria including the “realness” of their drag, the beauty of their clothing and their dancing ability.
The release said that after the screening of the film at the Dutch Bottle Café from 18:00 hrs, there will be a few, special, guest performances. And as customary, the festival ends with the traditional ‘painting the spectrum’ where attendees are invited to paint a huge, cloth banner with their personal messages and signs showing love, support and solidarity for LGBT Guyanese.
