LOCATION AND TIME CHANGE - Due to weather the location and time for this event has changed. We will now be screening the film at the Calgary Central Library at 6 PM
Directed by Jennie Livingston | UK, USA | 71 mins
As a celebration of Pride Month, a nod to Queer culture, and a little teaser of what’s coming this summer at BUMP, we are screening Paris is Burning (1990) at Calgary Central Library on June 27th. One night and one night only! We’re teaming up with the fine folks at BUMP, Calgary Public Library, and Calgary Pride to bring you this incredible film. This event is FREE!
Chronicling the world of fierce performance and competition at Harlem drag balls during the 1980s, Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning is a groundbreaking exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The documentary follows the lives of Dorian Corey, Will Ninja, Sol, Freddie and Kim Pedavis, Octavia St. Laurent, Angie and Venus Xtravaganza, and Pepper LaBeija as they perform and tell their respective stories. Candid interviews with each of the performers are interspersed with images of extravagant costumes, lavishly decorated sets, elaborate voguing, and impassioned offstage rivalries and onstage face-offs. Beyond the spectacle and pageantry of the drag balls, Paris is Burning provides an intimate look into the very real lives of a community struggling to survive — queer and trans people of colour dealing with loss and pain, but always thinking of their hopes and dreams for the future.
Rated 14A for coarse language and non-sexual nudity in a documentary context
Community Partner:
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, we honour and acknowledge that this screening takes place on Moh’kinsstis and the traditional Treaty 7 territory, as well as the oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6. Finally, we acknowledge all Nations, Indigenous and non, who live, work and play, as well as help steward this land, honour and celebrate this territory.