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[.betterwiseup]

Kiki, a new feature-length documentary directed by Sara Jorden? and co-written by Twiggy Pucci Gar?on, introduces audience-goers to this vibrant community and culture in its modern-day form. The film takes place three decades after the release of Paris Is Burning, the 1990 documentary that chronicled N.Y.C.?s black and Latinx gay ballroom scene during the 1980s. (Gar?on?s co-writing credit seems to allow for the subjects to control the way their narratives unfold on screen. A long overdue nod to the subjects of Paris Is Burning, who felt its director Jennie Livingston had taken advantage of them.) Unlike Paris Is Burning, which is rife with scenes of founding house mothers and fathers, Kiki follows the lives of its progeny ? Gar?on, his best friend Chi Chi Mizrahi, Divo Pink Lady, and two young black trans women, Gia Marie Love and Izana ?Zaryia Mizrahi? Vidal ? all legendary and all up-and-coming. Like the generations before them, they are figuring out a way to collectively survive their ?transitions,? as Gia Love puts it in one of the film?s opening shots. It doesn?t take long to realize: these ballroom-scene youth want to turn their perseverance into an emblem of triumph; they want their stories to be a victory of the QTPOC imagination over AIDS and an America that has done its very best to shut them out.
By stylizing survival, N.Y.C.?s black and Latinx queer community in the late ?70s and ?80s were forced to create safe spaces on the Christopher Street Pier and in clubs around Manhattan ? ports of peace and belonging that were given the title ?Paris.? These spaces established a culture of QTPOC fantasy, dreamed up by a hamstrung generation who lived entirely on the borders of society. Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja, all icons of Paris, held drag balls inspired by the ones hosted in Harlem at Rockland Palace in the ?20s. There, they fashioned new identities, invented vogue, created new music ? the ballroom scene?s DJ Mikeq and his music collective Qween Beats soundtracks Kiki with vogue beats ? and lived out denied desires that ended in death for many of them and their friends.
The kiki scene, a youthful offshoot of the traditional ballroom scene, unearthed for the mainstream in Paris Is Burning, has fully emerged in the past decade. Kiki depicts a dynamic community that uses vogue and ball competitions to foster youth development for queer kids of color. In one scene, shot at the Seward Park Extension, the House of Pink Lady convenes. Divo Pink Lady, who grows more comfortable expressing his sexuality as the film progresses, spins into the air and vogues across the floor. The house chants and claps, while in another section of the rec room Omari Mizrahi holds a group circle, providing a lesson on realness. ?In ballroom we can be whatever we want to be,? he says. ?You know what I?m saying? I can choose to be masculine or feminine. In this house, I don?t want us to have labels, simply this: you walk realness, doesn?t matter what realness it is, but you know because it?s you.? Omari then holds a class where the kids model the self confidence he instills in them. ?Yeah,? he says, eyeing a butch queen, ?I am looking for you to sell it.?


Read more: http://www.thefader.com/2017/03/06/kiki-film-essay

[BAPHOMET.]

c

[GRAND]

the ballroom scene is so interesting to me

but i feel like a lot of those girls just cant move on

[Freemala Harris]

Yassss

And omg divo better book w/ this exposure

[BrokenHeartsHeal]

cool. will tune in

[GLOCK]

Where's the lank?

[Eternal Bell]

this look so good

[BrokenHeartsHeal]

and they better make sure that my grandmother makes an appearance

[GLOCK]

and they better make sure that my grandmother makes an appearance

Qu-ing!

[.betterwiseup]

and they better make sure that my grandmother makes an appearance

I watched a recent Ballroom Throwback not too long ago and Mc Debra was using a four-wheel walker.
What happened?

[BrokenHeartsHeal]

and they better make sure that my grandmother makes an appearance

I watched a recent Ballroom Throwback not too long ago and Mc Debra was using a four-wheel walker.
What happened?

wtf

lemme go search

[.betterwiseup]

and they better make sure that my grandmother makes an appearance

I watched a recent Ballroom Throwback not too long ago and Mc Debra was using a four-wheel walker.
What happened?

wtf

lemme go search

[FINE.]

I've never seen 'burning

[.betterwiseup]

Avery Johnson  1 week ago
Kelly said he was losing his vision, so he wanted to see everyone one last time. I'm praying for him.

[.betterwiseup]

I've never seen 'burning

They just added back on Netflix. It's everything!
At the same time, it's sad because most all the people in the documentary passed away.