Jennie Livingston takes you into this underground world with incredible history personality, and compassion. A wonderful view of a wildly esoteric, yet understandably observant of societies prejudice. That prejudice baked into every single element of this experience, as a community comes together to create art, passion, and togetherness. It’s hard to explain in words the layers and depth of this particular underground New York society. Many films were about 1980s New York counter culture for a reason. It’s an absolutely fascinating time in the Bronx for people of all ages and these documentaries (this and Style Wars come to mind) capture a small piece of a large pie. The depiction of people, their inspirations and dedications, while showing the degradation and belittlement outside the “ball” scene in New York.
Seeing gays dress up as realness to exhibit the ability to blend in is a surreal piece of history that exemplifies the limits puritanical society slaps onto unwilling participants. Phenomenal film, almost all of the films subjects are fantastically opinionated and informed. The history and living lexicon of this world is unfathomable to anyone from the outside and Livingston captures a part of it.
Review: ☆☆☆☆½ (92)
Verdict: certified weird cinema
Weird Cinema 