post-PARIS IS BURNING vogue films playlist

I put together a playlist of short films (and short extracts from longer films) that people should watch once they have seen Paris Is Burning. These films fill in some of the gaps of PIB, give background details and information, and show where ballroom culture is at right now - which is important, as I feel people watch PIB and think they all there is to know about ballroom, which leads to this vibrant, living, breathing, evolving culture being dismissed as some kind of "90s relic", which plays into the kind of co-option and exploitation Madonna is guilty of. VOGUING IS NOT DEAD, IT IS ALIVE AND BETTER THAN EVER!

On this playlist you will find extracts form How Do I Look (the unofficial sequel to Paris Is Burning), footage of Crystal LaBeija in "The Queen", rare footage of Willi Ninja and pier kids voguing in the late80s/early90s, a film about the lost ballroom "classic" Icy Lake from LA's Fade To Mind label, a very short peek inside Vogue Knights (NY's weekly voguing showdown) and a look beyond the US scene to the modern voguers making Paris burn.

VOGUING: THE MESSAGE ft Willi Ninja (1989)

Voguing: The Message traces the roots of this gay, Black and Latino dance form, which appropriates and plays with poses and images from mainstream fashion. Voguing competitions parody fashion shows and rate the contestants on the basis of movement, appearance and costume. This tape is a pre-Madonna primer that raises questions about race, sex and subcultural style.

Dir. Jack Walworth, David Bronstein & Dorothy Low 1989 13 min. USA

Founded in 1977, Frameline is the nation’s only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to the funding, exhibition, distribution and promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender media arts. Frameline Voices is a new digital initiative that showcases diverse LGBT stories and expands access to films by and about people of color, transgender people, youth, and elders.

Niall sez: This has been online for two years now and only got 24K views. WTF people?! This is absolute GOLD DUST!!

DEEP IN VOGUE

 

One of my all time favourite 12"s (was one of the first 7"s I bought as a child) esp for the Mark Moore/William Orbit remix of “Deep In Vogue".

Here's a gif I made from the video: