Many documentaries on the subject of marginalized people hold a condescending attitude, showing poverty, crying out about suffering, and narrating sensationalism. The essence is to use the suffering of others to make money for oneself. Paris is Burning does not have this feeling at all. Black, male and gay, the film begins by revealing the triple barriers that stand in the way of this group. But even so, the documentary has no narration, only the proud performance of the actors who "perform themselves" and introduce their culture. With their own inexhaustible vitality, they developed a culture of voguing and dance that has entered the mainstream.
The most interesting aspect of the Ball, in terms of theme development and scoring, is realness. For example, school realness, which involves doing everything possible to reflect the theme of "school" from costume to gait, creates a natural sense of the scene. Through this kind of role-play, the drag queen group can express their understanding and feelings about different lives. For example, in the theme of executive realness, because of the social class of black gay people, they basically cannot experience the life of the elite in the Wall Street workplace. But in the ballroom, they can pretend that they are the stereotype of the American dream: white skin, affluence, suits, lingering in the taste of champagne, coffee and cigars. This vivid performance can be admiration for mainstream heterosexual happiness, as well as the playful mockery after seeing everything.
The most shocking monologue in the film comes from Willi Ninja, which gave rise to the film's title: ”I want to take voguing, not just take it to Paris Is Burning, but to the real Paris, and make the real Paris burning.” He hopes that voguing's vitality will not be limited to this documentary entitled "Paris Is Burning", but that it will make real Paris burn as well. Paris here is no longer a megalopolis on the map, but a synonym for the world, light, fashion, hope, dreams, beauty, fame, wealth, power, and all other beautiful words in the minds of these New York drifters. And burning means that these dancers dug deep into their own lives, using verbal and physical language to shake up the "Paris" of beauty, to let the world know that this "Paris" is not the exclusive domain of the so-called white upper class, and that their lives and their expressions deserve a place here.
In those days, high fashion was clearly associated with white, upper-class, and heterosexual labels. With the liberation of the human mind and the development of fashion, high fashion has gradually introduced minority themes, such as these years' trend of gender fluidity. Willi Ninja's descendants can indeed easily fly to Paris on the map and perform their proud voguing in the fashion capital. Voguing, along with Synth-Pop music, has become a nostalgic view of the 80s in a retro light, for the amusement of the after-dinner crowd, or for sampling. The external environment of the 80s was certainly depressing and dreary for gay people, but the clothes and dancing that were created within the community culture reflected the creative power of life that is hard to see today; and the intelligence and warmth, humor and grace of those years are good attitudes that few people have today. Are we getting farther and farther away from "Paris" nowadays? This is the question that came to me when I watched the film more than twenty years later.
You will make a mask/headpiece that creates a new identity or expresses an aspect of your own identity that you wouldn’t express through your everyday outfit. You are encouraged to use unconventional materials to help you to communicate a message through this new identity.
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Because Professor Marcela encourages the use of unconventional materials to help convey the message, I used the special material of paper. Paper is usually a fragile material, but sometimes what appears on paper can have a huge impact on people. In China, there is a phrase called "贴标签(labeling)", which means to impose one's own prejudices and stereotypes on people. Labeling can destroy someone's self-confidence and put them in a constant state of self-doubt. So I use a paper bag that closes the person up and put a lot of labels on it. But I didn't write anything on them because I believe people can imagine what the labels might be the moment they see them - in Paris is Burning, the labels might be Black, underclass and gay-related stereotypes. I cut a slit in the middle of the paper bag and glued two hand-folded hands. The material used is still paper, thus conforming to the overall choice of material. This expresses my choice of identity to break the confinement of the "label" and grow outward.
If I could further develop this, I would like to invite the audience to write on these blank labels and even put on new labels. Even though the act of labeling may never stop, my "hands" will try to reach out and explore my true identity. Feedback from Marcela in class was that after applying black ink to the paper, the material did not look like paper, and that perhaps a more raw feeling paper material could be considered. A student suggested that I use Xuan paper, which is used for Chinese brushstrokes. I imagined the effect that it can be written with dense characters using Chinese writing brush, must be very shocking. I'll be sure to try it if I have the chance!
(By the way, the ink is really stinky...... 🤧