KIKI, behind statistics

First of all, I need to say that I hesitated to post this article because the film that I'm going to present is no longer available on ARTE. However, I decided to still write the article because you guys need to know this film !!

Kiki is an American-Swedish co-produced documentary film, released in 2016.^[1] It takes place in New York City, and focuses on the "drag and voguing scene [and] surveys the lives of LGBT youth of color at a time when Black Lives Matter and trans rights are making front-page headlines".^[2] The film was directed by Sara Jordenö and considered an unofficial sequel to the influential 1990 film Paris Is Burning,^[3] the film profiles several young LGBT people of colour participating in contemporary LGBT African American ball culture.^[1]

^{Here is an extract of the Wikipedia article on KIKI}

^{So now let's see what makes this film so amazing!}

^{I liked the way it was not only showing the positive aspects of the KIKI scene but also the negative ones. My friend who watched the movie with me said she was disturbed by the strong competition in this community. Indeed, the different "houses" (groups of dancers leaded by one or several member) are affronting each other regularly. At the end, only one person is winning the competition. So my friend thought it was too competitive but I actually think it's not a problem because YES, the voguing scene is competitive but NO, it's not supposed to be a perfect world. I think it's good not to idealize the LGBT community because queer people are like every human, they have qualities and faults. KIKI is indeed showing the truth, not only the positive dimensions of the voguing scene.}

^{On the other hand, in mainstream medias, the LGBT community is often represented as a single entity in which everyone thinks the same, which is actually dehumanizing. As if what LGBT people were saying about their community was necessarily true because it concerns them.  This way of thinking is dangerous because it would mean that all LGBT people have the same opinion...However, KIKI is a film that shows disagreements between LGBT people.  There are for example  discussions between members of the voguing scene, where we can see that they have diversified points of view. These discussions were very enriching for me and I think we need to see more debates, questioning and analysis of LGBT related issues in our everyday life !!}

 ^{KIKI is a real masterpiece for me, it is full of emotions and it leads us to question ourselves on so many things we're not used to think about. I also liked the way it was filmed. Some images are very beautiful, they are simply showing the protagonists of the film in the street, and the mere fact that they are accepting who they are in public is extremely powerful. Finally, I will never forget what some protagonists said.  One of them declared "I became a statistics" about the fact that he has AIDS. This phrase affected me a lot because it reminds us that behind numbers there are people who have activities, friends, children and who may be part of the voguing scene...}

^{to conclude on a more positive note, here is the trailer of the film:} 

^{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sobw_cJQ_ck}

^Eva