One Store, One Club, One House, One Night. Infinite Legends.
synopsis
The Harlem ball scene and voguing meet pop culture in underground 1980s New York in this true story showing the fascinating convergence of the Paradise Garage, the House of Field, the ball scene, and 7th Avenue fashion, leaving a legacy of living and lost legends. Immerse in a compelling documentary of the missing link paving the way to Madonna’s Vogue and Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning.
PART ONE
“Find Your People” defines the sequence of events in the formation of the House of Field and the embracing of the Harlem Ball scene through relationships.
All rights reserved, copyright 1988 Tina Paul Photographs licensed with permission
PART TWO
“Write Your Own Categories” highlights the power to create one’s own narrative in life by showing the novel categories for which participants signed up to compete in the weeks before this sentinel ball.
PART THREE
“Dance to Remember” celebrates the abundant talent in the ballroom scene in many dance forms and reminds us how dance serves as a form of reverence for those who have gone before us.
All rights reserved Paradise Garage Dance Floor copyright 1986 Michele Saunders, licensed with permission
The innocence of the era, just like the 6 hour ball itself, represents a sentinel event. The night ended as all parties do, with ball culture and voguing becoming Vogue magazine and NY Post Page Six news for the first time ever.
Lives were lost to AIDS and violence, popular culture took hold, but the transforming energy of belonging represented in that togetherness cannot be destroyed. The art form of voguing and artists from the drag, fashion, and dance world released their beauty that night to the world in the joining of uptown, downtown, and 7th avenue in a synergy of 1980s NYC, living on in countless legends today.