Still Burning?

We're scanning the October edition of Out—which as most of have already heard, is the last to feature Editor-in-Chief Brendan Lemon's name on the masthead—and were pleasantly surprised by a wonderful photo essay behind the recent DVD release of Paris Is Burning. "Classic Update: What Became of the World Depicted in Paris is Burning 15 Years Ago?" is notable on two fronts: both interview subjects totally disagree with each other and the some of the original photography here is a wonderful juxtaposition to the images of the movie.

Erik Piepenburg interviews Jennie Livingston, director of Paris is Burning. Although her film was a critical and commercial success, Livingston now longer holds a grudge against the industry that eventually shut her out. More importantly, now she notes that neither money nor critical acclaim helped the people who exposed their lives to the camera. "Paris Is Burning didn't provide universal health care in America. I think it provided some wonderful imagery for gay, lesbian, and transgender audiences, but imagery isn't civil rights." Livingston's new film Who's the Top? is making its way around the film fest circuit.

The legendary Octavia St. Laurent was the second subject of the article; wit the exception of her and Willi Ninja, all of the persons prominently featured in the film are dead. St. Laurent has moved to Connecticut and still repudiates the movie. "It saddened me to see it. Jennie Livingston had no knowledge about the lifestyle. The information wasn't accurate." We're not qualified to debate the merits of film depictions of ballroom scene—Frank Leon Roberts says PIB subscribes "to the kind of ethnographic voyuerism typical of the documentary genre", even though we'd say documentaries are organically voyeuristic—but found the interview itself much more newsworthy. The article also chats up How Do I Look?, a newer release called a "sequel" to the cult classic. Frank Leon and others give this film higher marks.

Full-page scans of "Classic Update" via the print version of October's Out are above.

Paul Moakley lensed several brilliant photos for the article. The legendary ballroom star is almost ethereal in the woods—well, she has changed her name to Heavenly Angel Octavia St. Laurent—and it's a total 180 to the dark clubs or streets of the film. Jennie Livingston's photo with her dog is quite peaceful; Moakley caught the dog looking at its mistress, almost saying what are were going to do?

• Paris Is Burning. The Sequel. Sort Of. (Frank Leon Roberts)
• How Do I Look?
• Paris is Burning (TLA Video)
• More at Ball Room Rockstar and Clay Cane

Comments

[frank leon roberts]

rod, leave it to you to stumble across this gem. thanks a lot.

[avi]

fascinating. wish the out article was much longer, especially because i'd like to hear more from octavia what she didn't like about the movie. i remember the whole dorian corey dead body in the closet for years thing but didn't know dorian was dead too. heavens.

[boogie tonight]

nice

[HoneyforOshun]

nice retrospective. the mention of PIB premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in 1990 draws immediate parallels to another eagerly anticipated premiere in Toronto this year: Pick Up The Mic (www.pickupthemic.com), a documentary about the gay hip-hop scene. would love to share some thoughts when everyone's had the chance to see it, particularly the extent to which the "white ethnographic" viewpoint is an issue with this film.