A Queer Film Classic on the stunning 1991 documentary about New York’s drag subculture in the 1980s.

This latest addition to the Queer Film Classics series pays tribute to Paris Is Burning, Jennie Livingston’s brilliant and award-winning 1991 documentary that captures the energy, ambition, wit, and struggle of African American and Latino participants in the 1980s New York drag ball scene. This book contextualizes the film within the longer history of drag balls, the practices of documentary, the fervor of the culture wars, and issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

Lucas Hilderbrand is associate professor of film and media studies and queer studies at the University of California, Irvine.