I’m Your Venus

I’m Your Venus 💖, dir. Kimberly Reed, 2024, USA, 85 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 6:00 pm, Roxie Theater

I’m Your Venus
Venus Xtravaganza’s two families meet

I saw Paris is Burning at Frameline14, about as far back as I go with Frameline, but it made an indelible mark. I’m a white boy from the suburbs, not a drag queen, not trans, not a person of color, never (yet — Bucket List!) been to a ballroom event. And yet the film spoke powerfully to me about equality and empowerment and fierce determination to be fierce. Twenty-one years later, I saw it again when the restored film came to Frameline35, and found it just as moving as the first time.

One of the many memorable people interviewed in Paris is Burning was Venus Xtravaganza, but sadly she was murdered while the film was still in post, so she never got to enjoy herself on the silver screen. Many years later, her brothers (from her family of origin) still feel her loss, and the lack of closure of never having found the killer. They take on the task of getting the NYPD to reopen the case, and along the way decide that Venus deserves more than that as justice to who she was and to bring her legacy forward into the 21st century and beyond. They work extensively with the House of Xtravaganza (very much still going, despite other losses), as well as a team of attorneys and other activists.

It’s an amazing healing journey, both for the Pellagatti brothers (Venus’ family of origin) and the House of Xtravaganza, with repercussions that ripple far beyond. Unequivocally a must see.

• IMDb • trailer • official website • Now on Netflix •

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Paris is Burning 💖💝, dir. Jennie Livingston, 1990, USA, 93 min.

• IMDb • trailer • official website • official Facebook: @ParisIsBurningMovie •