This is Ballroom (Salão De Baile) (F/F)

Dir. Juru & Vitã | Brazil | 92 min | 2024

This moving documentary provides a window into the world of Brazilian drag, where the culture of voguing, birthed in the drag communities of New York in the late 1960s, has blossomed into the hugely expressive ballroom culture of contemporary Rio de Janeiro and its suburbs.

From its early American roots, when two Black queens left the white-dominated pageant contests of New York City behind to create their own scene, ballroom culture has long been a space of radical queer freedom. Now, five decades later, the ballroom scene is thriving in 21st century Brazil, with ‘houses’ across the country teaching the ‘art of shade’. Directed by queer Brazilian artists Juru and Vitã, This Is Ballroom is centred around a real-life ball in a warehouse in Rio, staged specifically for the film. By providing a judgement-free space for full human expression and transgression, the film shines an empathetic spotlight on its trans-led cast, while also revealing simmering racial and gender tensions. This Is Ballroom celebrates the world it documents as a bountiful and transformative space for queer people of colour.