Nearly thirty years after the landmark documentary Paris is Burning, a new film is taking a modern look at ball culture in New York City. Sara Jordenö‘s Kiki, which premiered last year at Sundance Film Festival and will get a release later this month via IFC Films, profiles a handful of LGBTQ people who are deeply involved with the scenes. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has now arrived which looks to be a beautiful celebration of this culture.
We said in our review, “Director Sara Jordenö, a Swedish visual artist, made Kiki in collaboration with Twiggy Pucci Garçon, a self-described gatekeeper of the Kiki scene. Co-credited as screenwriters, it’s easy to picture Garçon leading Jordenö in observing the subculture and its constituents without ever becoming too invasive. The documentary favors a measured approach, watching the dancing from a distance and calculating when to move in closer. Generally, this comes when it profiles one of its characters, such as trans activist Gia Marie Love. The camera favors lingering close-ups of subjects’ faces as they stare straight into it, voiceover from separate interviews sketching in the details of their lives. The effect is intimate, sometimes disquietingly so.”
Check out the trailer below.
25 years after Paris Is Burning introduced the art of voguing to the world, Kiki revisits New York City’s thriving underground ballroom scene. It’s a larger-than-life world in which LGBTQ youths of color are empowered by staging elaborate dance competitions that showcase their dynamic choreography, fabulous costumes, and fierce attitude. It’s also a safe haven for struggling, at-risk teens who find acceptance, support, and friendship within the Kiki community. Granted intimate access to the scene, filmmaker Sara Jordenö introduces viewers to some of Kiki culture’s most prominent personalities, going beyond the glamour of the balls to highlight the serious challenges facing queer black and Latino young people. Bringing together heartrending personal stories with incredible displays of creative expression, Kiki is “exhilarating…an indelible, must-see ode to gay New York” (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times).
Kiki opens on February 24 in theaters and on VOD.