Synopsis
A vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene.
- Programme: Arena
- Episode: Paris Is Burning
- Channel: BBC Four
- Broadcast year: 1990
- History | Gender Studies
Licence: ERA Licence required
Free to watch for UK schools, colleges and universities with an ERA Licence
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from Arena
01: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited | Arena
01: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited | Arena
The making of The Beatles' controversial 1967 film, featuring previously unseen archive footage.
02: The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour | Arena
02: The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour | Arena
Fully restored and with a remixed soundtrack, 'The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour comes out of the shadows and onto the screen.
Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle | Arena
Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle | Arena
Documentary telling the story of the day Amy Winehouse recorded a stunning acoustic performance in a church in the small I...
Bob Dylan - Trouble No More | Arena
Bob Dylan - Trouble No More | Arena
A Bob Dylan performance of songs expressing his new-found Christianity in the late 70s, enhanced by a series of sermons between the songs...
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 1 | Arena
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 1 | Arena
The story of Bob Dylan, directed by Martin Scorsese, from a rock 'n' roll loving kid in the Midwest to his arrival as a major fo...
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 2 | Arena
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 2 | Arena
Martin Scorsese continues to explore Bob Dylan's early career. At 23, Dylan confounds expectations and finds a new musical vocab...
Cindy Sherman - Nobody's Here But Me | Arena
Cindy Sherman - Nobody's Here But Me | Arena
Using herself as the model, American artist Cindy Sherman has produced hundreds of photographs exploring the use of female stere...
Cinema and Cindy Sherman | Arena
Cinema and Cindy Sherman | Arena
Guests discuss how poignant and present cinema is in Cindy Sherman's work.
Dockery Farm and Blues music | Arena
Dockery Farm and Blues music | Arena
Charlie Patton is considered to be the forefather of the Delta blues and worked on a plantation known as Dockery Farm.
Elder Burch and African American Gospel | Arena
Elder Burch and African American Gospel | Arena
In line with the rise of the civil rights movement, music in church became a vehicle for liberation and Elder Burch capitalis...
Infinity Mirror Rooms | Arena
Infinity Mirror Rooms | Arena
Documentary profiling Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama whose work, including her much-visited Infinity Mirror Room installations, defi...
Introduction to the art of Cindy Sherman | Arena
Introduction to the art of Cindy Sherman | Arena
A rare insight into the work of Cindy Sherman, one of the world's leading, and most elusive, contemporary artists.
James Baldwin - ''I can't be a pessimist...'' | Arena
James Baldwin - ''I can't be a pessimist...'' | Arena
James Baldwin's famous "I can't be a pessimist..." speech about race in America.
James Baldwin and Paul Weiss debate | Arena
James Baldwin and Paul Weiss debate | Arena
A debate between James Baldwin and Paul Weiss about race inequality.
Kusama: Infinity | Arena
Kusama: Infinity | Arena
Documentary profiling Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama whose work, including her much-visited Infinity Mirror Room installations, defies cl...
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X | Arena
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X | Arena
A conversation between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, exposing their different approaches to Civil Rights.
Miller Meets Mandela | Arena
Miller Meets Mandela | Arena
Following his release from prison, Nelson Mandela opens up about his life and the turbulent times he's faced in this rare and momentous intervie...
Produced by George Martin | Arena
Produced by George Martin | Arena
Profile of record producer Sir George Martin, with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Michael Palin among the ma...
Saints | Arena
Saints | Arena
Documentary looking at the phenomenon of sanctity. The Catholic Church is the only Christian persuasion with an official saint-making process, overseen by the...
Salvador Dali | Arena
Salvador Dali | Arena
An Arena special on the life and works of Salvador Dali, the events & things that influenced him and his paintings.
More resources about Modern USA
S01E10: The Assassination of JFK | Days That Shook the World
S01E10: The Assassination of JFK | Days That Shook the World
The stories of a day that rocked the American presidency: the assassination of its youngest leader, John F. Kenn...
S01E03: The Assassination of MLK | Days That Shook the World
S01E03: The Assassination of MLK | Days That Shook the World
This program follows the day Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
S01E00: Apollo 11 Moon Landing | Days That Shook the World
S01E00: Apollo 11 Moon Landing | Days That Shook the World
20/07/1969 - The day Apollo 11 landed on the Moon.
The Cold War | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley
The Cold War | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley
Lucy explains the post-war tensions between the US and Russia and the reasons why atomic bomb testing became...
1929: The Great Crash
1929: The Great Crash
Over six terrifying, desperate days in October 1929, shares crashed by a third on the New York Stock Exchange. More than $25 billion in individual weal...
22: Star Wars: 1981-1988 | Cold War
22: Star Wars: 1981-1988 | Cold War
Reagan's 1983 ''Evil Empire'' speech sets the tone for a more aggressive US posture against the Soviet Union, and the costly arms race is...
By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
Film-makers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams tell the behind-the-scenes story of the passionate campaigners who helped a young African-Am...
Eruption at Mount St. Helens | Surviving Disaster
Eruption at Mount St. Helens | Surviving Disaster
Mount St Helens' in Washington State stood almost 10,000 feet high and in 1980 had not erupted for over one hundred years.
McCarthyism | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley
McCarthyism | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley
Lucy details the affect of McCarthyism, where liberal-leaning people were singled out and tried as ''communis...
The Cuban Missile Crisis | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley
The Cuban Missile Crisis | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley
Lucy unpicks Kennedy's lauded efforts in the Cuban Missile Crisis and considers whether his brav...
The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy
The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy
For forty years, conspiracy theories have raged over the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Now, 3D computer animation of the cri...
Trump's First 100 Days | Panorama
Trump's First 100 Days | Panorama
A Panorama special looking at the first 100 days of President Trump. Jeremy Paxman crosses the US for a wry and searching examination of th...
02: The Brooklyn Bridge | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
02: The Brooklyn Bridge | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
This programme tells the story of father and son engineers John and Washington Roebling and their scheme to b...
04: Drugs and Punishment | Wheeler on America
04: Drugs and Punishment | Wheeler on America
Charles Wheeler looks at population growth in prisons and asks are penalties for drug offences too harsh?
06: The Panama Canal | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
06: The Panama Canal | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
The story of French engineer Ferdinand De Lesseps' scheme to build a canal across Panama.
S01E10: The Resignation of Nixon | Days That Shook the World
S01E10: The Resignation of Nixon | Days That Shook the World
The stories of a day that rocked the American presidency: the resignation of Richard Nixon.
S02E08: Terrorism: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln | Days That Shook the World
S02E08: Terrorism: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln | Days That Shook the World
How the commercial airplane has been used as a terrorist weapon: the Black September hijackin...
The Robert Kennedy Assassination
The Robert Kennedy Assassination
Documentary on the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, which illustrates arguments contrary to those which give Sirhan Sirhan as the lo...
01: Break-In | Watergate
01: Break-In | Watergate
In 1974, Richard Nixon, brought down by the Watergate scandal, became the only US president ever to resign. This programme looks at the break-in at ...
02: A Great Society? | Wheeler on America
02: A Great Society? | Wheeler on America
Charles Wheeler charts origins & decline of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programme, looking at how it changed the lives of poor p...