Popular reviews

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 3

  It not only explores the Kiki ball scene in New York, it explores the blurring of gender and sexuality that exists in spaces like this. It's not that there's no understanding of the distinction, but simply that there's so much in the world of drag performances and trans people and the ball scene that has some sort of superficial (or not) crossover--in no small part because none of those is as simple as they are often reduced to and in no small part because the same motivations exist for marginalizing us--that the lines become indistinct. This would be problematic in a film that doesn't acknowledge those distinctions, but this film repeatedly shows trans lives and queer lives and where they…

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  Review by sprungbok ★★★★½

  omg my mum ended up joining me for this and started asking me questions about trans stuff, pronouns, terminology etc. and we had a chat about it, she was really receptive and interested and it made me really happy and excited. i told her i loved talking to her about this stuff and loved that she was asking questions so she kept asking questions throughout, whenever she wasn't sure about something! it was such a beautiful experience, i explained to her why there's a Q at the end of LGBT, i explained they/them pronouns, and many other things... it just made me really happy and reminded me of the value of communication and education - and showed me how vital…

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  Review by Steven Cohen ★★★½

  I've never seen Paris Is Burning, but I might after watching Kiki to get a sense of how movements such as this one evolve over the years. These days, the "kiki" scene in New York City's Greenwich Village is a place for inner-city LGBT youth to congregate and find acceptance apart from an otherwise hostile community. Director Sara Jordenö shows the viewer the glamor of the de facto alliance, while also providing glimpses into the personal lives of the members who participate. Their struggles are alternately heart-warming and heart-breaking, each in its unique way. These stories lend a necessary backbone to the eye-opening documentary.

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  Review by Michael Scott ★★★½

  There’s indebtedness and then there’s indebtedness. There’s Paris is Burning and then there’s Kiki.

  In any other space, the similarities between Sara Jordenö’s revisit to the NYC ball scene (though this time around, the younger splinter, Kiki) and Jennie Livingston's 1991 documentary would be a cause for concern. But here, the homage to the queer lineage is welcome. And, given the much publicised misgivings around Livingston's methods, the gestation of this community-driven follow-up warrants celebration.

  With the help of the Kiki community, primarily Twiggy Pucci Garçon, founder of the Opulent Haus of PUCCI Jordenö gains access to the lives of a number of the current scene's key players, each providing an invitation into to their personal lived experience as young-people-of-colour…

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  Review by kass ★★★★

  As queer people, we try to live in systems that are oppressing us — so we try to live in the heteronormative systems. And they don't work. And they oppress us. So why we just don't create our own systems? that work and are successful and that can uplift our communities? - Gia Marie Love

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  Review by Megan ★★★

  Kiki is an unassociated 25 years later follow up to Paris Is Burning returning to the LGBTQ Ball scene. A lot has changed in 25 years, there's more trans visibility, it's post AIDS crisis and the movement has expanded far outside of Harlem. Sadly homophobia and transphobia are still very prevalent as showcased in the documentary as well as the effects of HIV. It's exciting to see the Ball scene continue and that voguing thrives but the doc's focus is going in depth on particular participants' lives. While Paris is Burning is more of a large swath of the community, Kiki follows different journeys from Gia Marie transitioning, Chi Chi making the perfect costume and Twiggy meeting the President at…

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  Review by Julius Kassendorf ★★★

  Kiki follows up Paris Is Burning, returning to the vogue balls of Harlem populated by at risk queer youth across the gender spectrum.

  Livingston's 78-minute documentary, Paris Is Burning is intense. It uses the balls to color the world around it. There's a hefty central focus, and through that lens we learn about everything from Republican politics to the 80s glamour culture to the influence of wealth to homelessness, sex work, drug use, and death.

  There's been a lot of progress in the community but there's still a lot more to do. Where Livingston used Paris Is Burning as an description of a community in crisis, Kiki is a social justice documentary masquerading as a community doc. Running a full…

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  Review by Morgan ★★★½

  ngl I think I like this more than Paris Is Burning

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  Review by ❤︎Kaila❤︎ ★★★★★

  Kiki is an fantastic and outstanding documentary. And that’s on what? PERIOD.

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  Review by Bri’anna ★★★★

  I think people do a disservice to this film by insisting on evoking Paris is Burning when they speak about it. While Paris is Burning felt extremely voyeuristic, Kiki allows LGBTQ youth to tell their own story.

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  Review by Allison ★★★★

  Queer Film Challenge Week 17: “Paris is Burning”

  If I wasn’t watching this for the Queer Film Challenge as a replacement/compliment for Paris is Burning I would leave this commentary aside because this doc absolutely stands on its own and I don’t want anyone thinking based on all these reviews that you need some knowledge of PiB to see this film.

  This is a terrific moving portrait of queer culture in NYC through the lens of several people involved in the kiki/ball culture scene.
  I haven’t seen Paris in a while, so some of my memory of it could be off (I might modify this when I get around to a rewatch of it) but if memory serves Paris is…

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  Review by Kane Geary O' Keeffe ★★★½

  Petition to add vogueing to the secondary school P.E curriculum