Dictionary Definition
realness n : the state of being actual or real;
"the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him" [syn: reality, realism] [ant: unreality]
User Contributed Dictionary
Extensive Definition
Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary
film directed by Jennie
Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the
ball
culture of New York
City and the poor, African
American and Latino gay and transgendered community
involved in it. Many consider Paris Is Burning to be an invaluable
documentary of the end of the "Golden Age" of New York City drag
balls, as well as a thoughtful exploration of race, class, and
gender in America. Moreover, it has been said that whilst the
documentary made a film-maker out of Livingston, the drag queens
remained in the same financially-strapped and discriminated-against
position as before the film.
- Most of the film was completed in 1990, but the movie still lacked titles, as the filmmakers had no money to do titles or to create a proper print in which sound and picture were married. (For this reason, when Paris Is Burning had its film premiere, at the Frameline Festival in San Francisco, at the Castro Theater, the film was shown in "double system" (sound and picture running separately) and there was a 10 minute break for a reel change.) When the film was accepted to Sundance, the filmmakers created a 7 minute credit sequence, which included outtakes from the film, including Chipper Corey's inspired lipsync performance of "Over the Rainbow". Several sources, such as IMDB, credit the film as having been completed in 1990, but in 1990 it was 7 minutes shorter.
Awards
- 1990 IDA Award, International Documentary Association
- 1990 LAFCA Award Best Documentary, Los Angeles Film Critics Association
- 1990 Audience Award Best Documentary, San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
- 1991 Grand Jury Prize Documentary, Sundance Film Festival
- 1991 Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film, Berlin International Film Festival
- 1991 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (BSFC) Best Documentary
- 1991 the very first Open Palm Award, now called Breakthrough Director Award Gotham Awards
- 1991 NYFCC Award Best Documentary, New York Film Critics Circle Awards
- 1991 Golden Space Needle Award Best Documentary, Seattle International Film Festival
- 1992 Outstanding Film (Documentary), GLAAD Media Awards
- 1992 NSFC Award Best Documentary, National Society of Film Critics