Friday, June 27, 2014

‘Spectrum 10’ Ends with “Paris Is Burning”

The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) will close the curtains on its tenth annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film festival, Painting the Spectrum 10, with the 1990, classic American documentary, Paris Is Burning.
Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s and directed by Jennie Livingston, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it. Many members of the ball culture community consider Paris Is Burning to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the "Golden Age" of New York City drag balls, as well as a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America. The film explores the elaborately-structured ball competitions in which contestants, adhering to a very specific category or theme, must "walk" (much like a fashion model's runway) and subsequently be judged on criteria including the "realness" of their drag, the beauty of their clothing and their dancing ability. 
After screening the film, there will be a few, special, guest performances to celebrate the milestone of Painting the Spectrum – the only LGBT film festival in the English-speaking Caribbean – ending its tenth annual run. And as customary, the festival ends with the traditional ‘painting the spectrum’ where attendees are invited to paint a huge, cloth banner with their personal messages and signs showing love, support and solidarity for LGBT Guyanese.
The festival culminates this Sunday, June 29, 2014, at the Dutch Bottle Café located at 10 North Road, Bourda, in Georgetown at 18:00 hrs. There is no charge for admission, but the event is intended for mature audiences. Persons must be 18 years and over in order to attend.

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