Paris is Burning (1991) depicts a New York fashion subculture. Shot in the late 1980s, the film examines how a community of Black and Latino gay and transgender New Yorkers build sustenance, creativity, and family. Exploring ballroom culture – and defining and re-defining words like “house,” “mother,” “shade” “voguing” and “Realness” – Paris is Burning draws a series of incisive character portraits. The movie writes a complex essay on class, race, identity, and the transformative powers of dance and performance.

In 2016 Paris is Burning was one of 25 films to be inducted in the Film Registry at the

Library of Congress, and was the Sundance Film Festival's 2015 Sundance Collection

screening. In 1991, Paris is Burning won a Sundance Grand Jury Prize, a Berlinale Teddy

Bear, and was on 10-Best- Film-of- the-Year lists of The Washington Post, The LA Times,

Time Magazine, and NPR. It had hugely successful theatrical releases in the US,

Australia, Austria, Germany, Holland, Japan, the UK, and elsewhere. 25 years after its

release, its influence can be felt in film, music, theater, cultural studies, and politics.