I’ll Show You… Paris is Burning (1990)

Welcome to another episode of I'll Show You Mine! This week, Elyse shows James "Paris is Burning" the documentary about the gay ball scene of New York in the 1980s from 1990. This film has received a lot of praise as well as controversy over the years, but it remains a landmark of gay cinema and a historical record for the origins of drag culture and gay life for Black and Latinx youth in 80s New York.

Join us as Elyse runs absolutely buckwild talking about gender, sexuality, and identity while James is extremely straight and lost but still kind and appreciative. We talk about how the slang of ball culture has crossed over to the mainstream, the range of identities, personalities and opinions that we see on screen, and try desperately to do justice to all the layers of this movie and the community it represents.

Please be warned that the film covers the unfortunate death of one of the interviewees, Venus Xtravaganza, and we discuss it at the beginning of the second part of the show and at the end of the episode. It's very sad and may be triggering, some listeners may choose to skip it.

Our next episode will be March 13th, when James shows Elyse "Tropico" for PC.

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Our theme song is:

Dreams by Joakim Karud @joakimkarud

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