I’M YOUR VENUS
US, 2024, 85 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Kimberly Reed.
In 1990, there was a significant documentary, Paris is Burning. Wikipedia entry notes:
Paris is Burning is a 1990 American documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay and transgender communities involved in it.
Critics consider the film to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City drag balls, and a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender and sexuality in America.
In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.
One of the personalities featured was young transgender woman, Venus Xtravaganza. Shortly after her appearance in the film, she was found murdered in a New York hotel, an investigation, closed, cold case.
In the 2020s, her brothers, the Kelly Gatti family, of Italian and Puerto Rico background, sought legal advice about reopening the case. This film is about them, the contact with lawyers and receiving more information about the case, though, at the end, because of the 34 years difference in time, not likely to be fully solved.
This film, highlighting Venus, her family, Pelliggatti, Italian and Puerto Rican background, her parents splitting, her brothers, her being gay, imagining herself as a girl, living with her grandmother, joining a group of transgender people in the Xtravaganza House, her lively participation in the culture of drag balls, excerpts from the film and her talking to camera.
The film focuses on the brothers, strong screen presences, their discussions, their reminiscences, their regrets about their sister, their wanting to do right.
They also make contact with the Xtravaganza community decades later, and the audience is introduced to some strong personalities, especially their contact, Gisele, with a lot of information about the culture, the influence of Venus on her, her leadership of the community. And there are some personalities who are following in Venus’ footsteps.
The film opens up issues of transgender, the trans-life and lifestyle, the need for community and affirmation. And, there is still a focus on the balls, drag balls, “and the popularity of “Vogueing”, vigorous dancing and holding poses that might be used as photographs for Vogue.
While there is plenty of flamboyance, there are also serious matters, especially the issue of officially registering the name of Venus Xtravaganza, official documents, changing her original name to this one on her tombstone. And, the very serious sequence where there is a request to make the house she grew up in a landmark, many giving evidence, the board giving unanimous sent, and sequences at the end there now a memorial to Venus.
And, finally, a lot of exuberance but also the serious focus, especially for the brothers and their looking back, that each person, no matter what their behaviour and their problems in life, each is a human being.
