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Paris Is Burning
Directed by
Jennie Livingston
R
1991
78m
Documentary
8.2
98%
88%
8.0
Add to Watchlist
A chronicle of New York's drag scene in the 1980s, focusing on balls, voguing and the ambitions and dreams of those who gave the era its warmth and vitality.
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Where to Watch Paris Is Burning
Shout! Factory TV
Free
Tubi TV
Free
Criterion Channel
Subscription
+5 more
Cast of Paris Is Burning
Pepper LaBeija
Self
Octavia St. Laurent
Self
Venus Xtravaganza
Self
Dorian Corey
Self
Willi Ninja
Self
Paris Dupree
Self
Freddie Pendavis
Self
Sol Williams Pendavis
Self
Junior LaBeija
Self
Angie Xtravaganza
Self
Carmen Xtravaganza
Self
Brooke Xtravaganza
Self
Kim Pendavis
Self
Sandy Ninja
Self
Avis Pendavis
Self
Andre Christian
Self
Stevie St. Laurent
Self
Bianca Xtravaganza
Self
Danny Xtravaganza
Self
David Xtravaganza
Self
Paris Is Burning Ratings & Reviews
Chicago Tribune
Gene Siskel
The earnestness of the competition is what holds this film together.
New York Times
Vincent Canby
There is a lot of common sense and natural wit behind the role-playing. Yet there is also a terrible sadness in the testimony.
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
[The film intercuts] ball scenes with interviews with the participants in less hectic, more reflective moments. It is those personal, humanizing moments, much more than the hectic, eye-catching hubbub of performance, that truly linger in the mind.
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
If all you know about Voguing comes from Madonna, this spirited and heartbreaking documentary from first-time filmmaker Jennie Livingston will be an eyeopener.
Tulsa World
Dennis King
Although the film has its dark moments, Paris Is Burning is mostly upbeat, and the overall message of the movie is heartening and humane.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Roger Hurlburt
Paris Is Burning is a daring and remarkable little film.
Baltimore Sun
Stephen Wigler
Livingston weaves these narratives together with pace and skill.
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The film is rude, colorful, and bursting with questions about American culture, subculture, and society.
Hartford Courant
Malcolm Johnson
A fascinating, ironic, triumphant, tragic film.
Chicago Tribune
Dave Kehr
A rough-edged, talking- heads documentary, directed with skill if not polish by Jennie Livingston, that has found a topic almost unbelievably rich in cultural paradoxes and interpretive possibilities.
Los Angeles Times
Katie Walsh
Wildly entertaining, deeply humanitarian and fundamentally educational.
FilmWeek (LAist)
Claudia Puig
The way that [director Jennie Livingstone] looks at the subculture and just lets them tell their own stories is just so wonderful.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Jeff Strickler
Truly remarkable.
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
One emerges from this film not only with a new vocabulary and a fresh way of viewing the straight world but with a bracing object lesson in understanding what society "role models" are all about.
Slant Magazine
Fernando F. Croce
The beauty of the film is Livingston's nonjudgmental, accommodating camera.
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
What I saw was a successful attempt by the outsiders to dramatize how success and status in the world often depend on props you can buy, or steal, almost anywhere -- assuming you have the style to know how to use them.
Washington Post
Hal Hinson
For the people in Paris Is Burning, dreaming is a refuge, their true home. Livingston's movie is a map of their private geography, a moving topography of dreams.
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
[A] touching and funny eye-opener of a documentary.
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
As much a movie about class, race, and sexual orientation as anything you've ever seen, Paris is Burning is deceptively simple on its surface, but by the end you'll find yourself devastated by its take on the American dream.
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Jennie Livingston's [film is] witty and profound documentary about the rituals of the new urban drag-queen subculture.
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