# @cinemadetroit on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B0V2KVbF5QH
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/5209154-cinemadetroit-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5293b3c9bf.jpg
- **Posted:** 2019-07-25T13:26:04.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Cinema Detroit (@CinemaDetroit) — https://gondola.cc/CinemaDetroit

## Caption

Last chances to see THE QUEEN (1968) and PARIS IS BURNING are TONIGHT [Thursday, July 25]. Both depict the foremothers of the competitive drag that is so popular in our society today. 
Thankfully, it’s difficult to imagine today that much of what happens in THE QUEEN was illegal at the time. When the film premiered the year before Stonewall, cross-dressing was a felony in much of the U.S. A man wearing lipstick or eyeliner could be, and often was, arrested. 
1️⃣ Performer Crystal LaBeija, who basically steals the show, highlights the marginalization of people of color in the drag scene. She went on to establish the house system that we see in PARIS IS BURNING. 2️⃣ Filmed over several years and released in 1990, this doc shows a flourishing community of Black and Brown performers, but sadly not much had changed in the attitude of larger society, and it’s disturbing how little has changed since then. The film itself was controversial, as the people depicted in the doc accused director Jennie Livingston of exploitation. PARIS also offers a subtle critique of class discrimination and consumerism. Aside from the musical numbers, fierce posing, and colorful characters, the still unsolved murder of Venus Xtravangza reminds us of the epidemic of violence against trans women in our own time. Together, these two films are important records of a time and place that has largely disappeared and they are essentials of Queer cinema that have never looked or sounded better than in these new restorations. 
#movies #Detroit #cinemadetroit #lgbtq #everymonthispridemonth #rupaulsdragrace #posefx

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## Tags

detroit, posefx, everymonthispridemonth, cinemadetroit, lgbtq, movies, rupaulsdragrace

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