FIERCE FANTASIES & THE LEGENDARY CHILDREN: Paris Is Burning (1989)

Today's movie is a documentary that means quite a lot to me. It is a beautiful, touching, exciting, sad, wicked little film about poor kids not born into the more privileged lifestyle they covet and imitate. When it originally appeared I was living in Portland, Oregon and went to see it in the theater at Cinema 21 and it nearly blew the back of my head out. I was literally jolted into excitement by the dance, the dress, the desperation. It allowed me to reinforce my inner self, to value my uniqueness, to hold yourself accountable for your own system. I did not want to be like these fabulous children- I just wanted to a fabulous child. It was at a point when I was formulating the next phase of my existence, the real me that I was too repressed to become yet. And then I hit the streets of Chicago and let it all come out- at first going in for the typical mainstream cop out of fashion and follow, which lasted about 8 months until I unleashed the rock n roll motherfucker I truly am to this day- finally, one of the legendary children. Gay or straight, left or right, up or down, this film will give you a greater sense of the world and how others live and do, and how as much as you think you have the answers, whatever your background- there is an undeniable desire we all have to find our place in this mess of a universe that puts pressure against us every waking minute. So shake the dice and steal the rice, baby- this one is for you!