Happy Thursday 🖐 We hit 500 subscribers this week! It’s truly overwhelming that anyone would care what I have to say, let alone hundreds. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here. Please continue to help grow our little community and don’t forget to subscribe:
To celebrate, today’s recommendation is for the documentary Paris is Burning, one of my favorite movies of all time — streaming on Netflix.
Here’s what it’s about: The movie follows several members of the ballroom scene in New York City. Balls are elaborately staged competitions where trans and queer performers — some in drag — compete in different categories and are judged on their fashion, performance, and “realness.” While they’re queens in the ballroom, outside they deal with homophobia, violence, and a growing epidemic. [Trailer]
Why you should watch it: The importance of Paris is Burning cannot be understated. As en exercise in documentary filmmaking, it mines incredible honesty from its subjects and captures it with immense empathy and admiration — the camera finds the warmth emanating from them like in the haunting final shot. Livingston uncovers the heart and humor as well as the hurt in each of the people she follows whether its trans sex worker Venus Xtravaganza or drag queen Pepper LaBeija, the legendary mother of the house of LaBeija. Those larger-than-life personalities fuel the liveliness and irresistible energy of Paris is Burning.
Directed by Jennie Livingston // ⏱ 71 mins // 📅 1990 // 🎭 Documentary
📺 Buy or Rent: Paris is Burning is only available to stream on Netflix.
In movie news
No Time to Die delayed due to coronavirus
April is truly no time to die. In an unprecedented move, the release of the 25th James Bond movie No Time to Die was pushed back from April to November due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The producers of the movie cited a “thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace” as part of the reason. Translation: they didn’t want to release without the Chinese market.
Of course, there were public health concerns, as well. The popular Bond fan blog MI6-HQ also called for a delay.
The new U.S. release date is Thanksgiving weekend — November 25. This means Godzilla vs. Kong may be moved to avoid competition.
My take: I think it’s an admirable move in the interest of public safety — which had to be a concern considering how costly the change is. But the cynic in me thinks that they evaluated the depressed market and thought it more valuable to move.
That’s all for today. Thank you again for being here. Have fun this weekend!
See you next week!
Karl (@karl_delo)