<P> 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 . </P> <P> Most of the film alternates between footage of balls and interviews with prominent members of the scene, including Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja . Many of the contestants vying for trophies are representatives of "Houses" (in the fashion - brand sense, such as "House of Chanel") that serve as intentional families, social groups, and performance teams . Houses and ball contestants who consistently won in their walks eventually earned a "legendary" status . </P> <P> Jennie Livingston, who moved to New York after graduating from Yale to work in film, and who spent six years making Paris Is Burning, concentrated on interviews with key figures in the ball world, many of whom contribute monologues that shed light on the ball culture as well as on their own personalities . In the film, titles such as "house," "mother," and "reading" emphasize how the subculture the film depicts has taken words from the straight and white worlds, and imbued them with alternate meanings, just as the "houses" serve as surrogate families for young ball - walkers whose sexual orientations have sometimes made acceptance and love within their own families hard to come by . </P> <P> The film depicts people with different gender identities or communities and their different forms of expression . It also explores how its subjects dealt with the adversity of racism, homophobia, AIDS and poverty . For example, some, like Venus Xtravaganza became sex workers, some shoplift clothing, and some were thrown out of their homes by homophobic parents . One participant was saving money for sex reassignment surgery . According to Livingston, the documentary is a multi-leveled exploration of a subculture in African American and Latino cultures that proves to be a microcosm of society, which was an underappreciated and arguably underground world that many Americans were unfamiliar with . Through candid one - on - one interviews the film offers insight into the lives and struggles of its subjects and the strength, pride, and humor they maintain to survive in a "rich, white world ." </P>

In the documentary film paris is burning the houses are
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