Paris is Burning

Last night, I watched Paris is Burning, a 1990's documentary based on 80's drag queens in New York City. It was distributed on Netflix, which reassured me in my initial idea of having my docuseries on Netflix. I fell in love with the way the director captured the "balls" that the queens would often spend rent money on. The glamour and the poverty juxtaposed each other, naturally, as well as hearing the young interviewees' talk about their dreams, and the older ones discuss accepting their circumstances.

It really made me want to make the entire docuseries on drag queens in Wilton Manors, following them through their life, struggles, passions, etc. I would love to build relationships with the drag queens and watch them over a 3 year period--but I simply don't have the resources to do this.

As a compromise, I am set on getting plenty of night-life footage and creating this flamboyant, extravagant night-life culture that stemmed from the era in Paris is Burning, one of vogueing, shading and realness. I don't want to create anything boring. I want my 5 minute extract to have shockingly explicit footage, up close emotional shots, loud music, obnoxious dancing, and hiding nothing. I am vowing to not water down Wilton Manors for the comfortability of viewers.

Paris is Burning reminded me of what I care about in creating this docuseries. I'll continue watching this documentary and other similar ones throughout the production.