Higher Level Essay

Language A: Language and Literature

Title: How are cinematic techniques and linguistic

aspects in the Interviews in Paris is Burning by
Jannie Livingstone used to depict the influence of
capitalism in ballroom culture?

word count: 1 496

How are cinematic techniques and linguistic aspects in the Interviews in Paris
is Burning by Jannie Livingstone used to depict the influence of capitalism in
ballroom culture?
 Paris is burning 1991 is a documentary by Jennie Livingston that narrates the

Ballroom culture in New York. The Ballroom community suffers from oppression due

to their gender, ethnicity and social class. Livingston uses cinematic techniques to

explore aspects of that culture and share aspects of their daily lives through

interviews. The documentary shows a dichotomy 1between classes and the power of

acquisition by depicting contrasts of different realities in society. Some contradictions

of the documentary written by critics, for example, the misrepresentation of that

community and cultural appropriation. Therefore, Paris is Burning converted itself

into a cycle, where the documentary does not solve any problem faced by that

community but, on the contrary, aggravates it; by transforming their lives (Ballroom

community) into entertainmentt. In this essay, I will explore how the cinematic

techniques and the language used in Paris is Burning by Jannie Livingstone helped

depict the influence of capitalism in ballroom culture.

In the documentary, the Ballroom is shown as a safe meeting place for

everybody who feels apart or oppressed by the capitalist system, which

discriminates a part of the society while empowering the other. At the same time as

video footage archive of ballroom competitions are displayed, an overlapping voice

says, “ when it come to minorities, especially black, we as a people, for the past 400

years, are the greatest example of behavior modification 2 in the history of civilization”

(Pepper 1991). The practice of passing 3in this community is highlighted, as well as

the influence of capitalism starts to be revealed. “We have had everything taken

1 Dichotomy: A division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed
or entirely different.
2 Passing: Occurs when a person classified as a member of a racial group is accepted or
perceived ("passes") as a member of another. The term has been used primarily in the US to
describe a person of color/multiracial ancestry who assimilated into the white majority to escape
the legal and social conventions of racial segregation and discrimination.
3 System, referred to the capitalism culture.
away from us, and yet we have all learned how to survive. That is why, in the

ballroom circuit, it is so obvious that if you have captured the great white way of

living, or looking... or dressing or speaking - you are a marvel” (Pepper 1991) A trace

of capitalism is shown in this speech, in the form of white supremacy- when the

belief that white people are superior; leads and regulates society, controlling the

affluents on that community, excluding others.

Inside the ballrooms, dynasty4 became a life objective, an unreachable goal,

where participants contrast their lives with Dynasty characters, developing an unjust

feeling "I always felt cheated out of things like that … So why is it that they can have

it and I did not?" (Pepper 1991). The use of rhetorical questions in this closed-up
5
emphasises the character’s view of inequality. It subverts expectations about how

this marginalised community was oppressed and how they responded to it through

the competitions. "you cannot get a job … because of the social standing of life... In

a ballroom… you are not an executive, but you are looking like an executive" (Dorian

1991). This way of camouflaging the reality shows the pure purpose of the ballroom:

"Give the society that they live in what they want to see … blending in with

everybody else making your illusion perfect”. (Dorian 1991) The ballroom

performances were a way for them to express themselves through the artistic

practice of drag.

In general, through the interviews, especially with Dorian, a drag queen over 40

years old, a concept of parallel reality is established, where the balls replicate what

happens. "In real life, you cannot get a job as an executive unless you have the

educational background and the opportunity" (Dorian 1991). By using the expression

4 Dynasty: A series from the 90s that describes the daily life of an affluent family. The family lifestyle
is only possible due to the predominant capitalist system that concentrates big fortunes in the hands
of few people.
5 Closed-up: Photograph or film image taken at close range and showing the subject on a large scale.
‘real life’, she supports the concept of social division, the privileged and the

unprivileged, which is a consequence of capitalism because not everybody can have

the same fortune since money is a finite source. At the end of Dorian's interview, she

starts to expand and connect ideas about how the ballroom works to escape the

capitalist system in order for her to survive. "You know, a ball is like our world. A ball,

to us, is as close to reality" (Dorian 1991). By comparing the ballroom with reality,

Dorian starts pointing out how ballroom culture reject and idealizes capitalist norms.

"They give the society that they live in what they want to see … to make your illusion

perfect" (Dorian 1991). This speech shows how the predominant system of

capitalism shaped the ballroom to protect that community from capitalism, replicating

it in competitions—satisfying both realities.

Moreover, a middle shot, recorded on the night- around some clubs, showed

who the ballroom feels like to some participants, and it was described to be "like

crossing into the looking glass in Wonderland". A voice, probably from Livingstone,

asks from behind the camera: "Isn't it like that in the outside world?" while he

responds: "It is not like that in the outside world. You know, it should be like that in

the outside world." In this dialogue, an allusion to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland

is created. Similar to the wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece, the ballroom

works as a way to escape from reality. Making a reality inside the ballroom where

everyone could be anything and the real world where they are culturally enclosed in

the predominant system. This way of camouflaging the reality shows the pure

purpose of the ballroom: "They give the society that they live in what they want to

see … blending in with everybody else making your illusion perfect”. (Dorian 1991)

However, it is worth remembering that both worlds, even though they are so magical

and carry our fantasy and charm. Countering its dangers with its attractions.
 An excellent example between attractiveness and danger, portrayed in the

ballroom competition, is with Venus Xtravaganza, a young light skin Latina that

belonged to the House of xtravaganza, who had most of her interviews with some

stationary camera movements horizontally. She draws special attention because she

was murdered during the documentary. She had many dreams, for example, "to be a

spoiled, rich, white girl" (Paris is Burning 1991), and those dreams led her to objectify

herself to get what she wanted. "She always took a chance. She always went into a

stranger's car. She always did what she wanted to get what she wanted. (Angie

Xtravaganza 1991).

Livintongs had an interview with two ladies, asking about what they were

waiting for “(woman) we are waiting for the working girls to get there. (Livingston)

and what is it those girls are doing? (woman) They are making money for the balls ...

usually, they are showgirls”(Paris is burning 1991:52-53 min). Even though it is not

explicit, it is understood that those ‘working girls’ or ‘showgirls’ are doing more than

dancing to make money, despite the fact that the ballroom was supposed to be a

Drag performance to escape from their problems or even a way to be against the

system. The fact that they commercialized their bodies to make money for the

competitions is a pure example of how capitalism has infiltrated that culture, forcing

themselves to sell their bodies.

Following up on the release of the documentary, some criticism was made. In

chapter nine of Bell Hooks' Black Looks, "Is Paris Burning?", she talks about how the

community represented in the documentary did not criticise the "white supremacist,

capitalist patriarchy" (Hooks,1992, p.147) and how ballroom culture is portrayed as

being outside of the capitalist system whilst simultaneously being obsessed with it.

She also criticises the community portrait to belittling their own culture- "What could
be more reassuring to a white public fearful that marginalised disenfranchised black

folks might rise and make revolutionary black liberation struggle a reality than a

documentary affirming that colonised, victimised, exploited black folks, are all too

willing to be complicit in perpetuating the fantasy that ruling-class white culture is the

quintessential site of unrestricted joy, freedom, power and pleasure." (Hooks, 1992

p.149). In other word, Paris is burning also became an "appropriation of our

narratives" (The Guardian, 2015) However, Livingston makes open that her

documentary did explore that subculture. "I think we can talk about how film and

television shows exploit people because the systems 6we work with are complicated.

But I do not think Paris is burning is unique in having a relationship to a subculture

that the culture itself did not make the film" (Livingston, 2019).

The documentary depicts the capitalist influences in the ballroom culture and

shows the struggle and pain of an oppressed community that uses artistic practices

in order to express themselves. The ballroom culture did not solve the political

problems of the 1980s, did not make the poor rich, did not save the community from

AIDS – what Ballroom culture did accomplish – was to help relieve the pain felt by

that community, where you could be anyone and anything. In addition, it shows an

invisible layer of the population, the violence, prejudices and difficulties that this layer

of the population has to deal with in order to survive, and how the perversity of

capitalism influenced them. However, Livingstone choices of videos shots, interviews

and cinematic technics either can be interpreted as an open critic of capitalism or

how the ballroom community adheres to capitalist discourse.

6 Could be referred to the way they pass (passing) in order to survive.

Bibliography

1. Hooks, Bell. “Is Paris Burning?” Black Looks, Race and Representation, South End
Press Boston, MA, 1992, pp. 145–56,
books.google.ae/books/about/Black_Looks.html?
id=zAPEBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&redir_esc
=y#v=onepage&q&f=false.

2. “Paris Is Burning.” YouTube, uploaded by Jennie Livingston, 13 Sept. 1990,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBVBipOl76Q.

3. The Guardian. 2021. Burning down the house: why the debate over Paris is Burning
rages on. [online] Available at:
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/24/burning-down-the-house-debate-
paris-is-burning> [Accessed 1 December 2021].

4. Livingston, J. (n.d.). Director Jennie Livingston in Paris is burning revival. BBC News.
Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-
48775914.