A celebration of ‘Paris Is Burning’ with Peaches Christ and Latrice Royale

According to Niall Connolly at Dangerous Minds, "If you have not seen Paris Is Burning, you’re just not doing it right. I’m talking Life, honey."

I’ve written about Paris Is Burning before, and referenced it in my recent ballroom piece for Boing Boing, but the truth is that the impact of this film on gay culture, and by extension culture at large, cannot be overestimated. That a film about underground drag culture and voguing resonated so strongly amongst gays should not be a surprise, but what is surprising is how far its influence has spread in “straight” circles. Its language and imagery are now common parlance, and it won a recent PBS “best documentary” poll by an overwhelming landslide.

Which is why I was so delighted to see Paris Is Burning get recent a Midnight Mass screening in San Francisco, hosted by the queens Peaches Christ and Latrice Royale.

Read: Legendary: A celebration of ‘Paris Is Burning’ with Peaches Christ and Latrice Royale [Dangerous Minds]

And don't miss Niall's earlier feature for Boing Boing on voguing.

Check out Robbie Sweeny's photoset from the Castro Theater event.

• [noah django]

  as a straight teen, I went to see it back around ’90 because I’d heard it was a good film.  which it very much was.  my second viewing was a screening in my college photo class as an example of great composition.  yes, masterful.

  it’s just a really good film.  it’s like, *I* hunted down a copy of Style Wars because I was writing graf really seriously back then; I was of the culture.  but it found a broader audience because the editing, the people, and the emergent subculture were just so compelling.  same deal with PIB.  everyone can enjoy this film.

• [BJN]

  When they cleaned out Dorian Corey’s apartment after she died, they found a mummified human body. Look it up.

• [Suzanne Cannon Rumsey]

  That’s “Latrice M*th*r Fu*king Royale” to you….