As black and hispanic gay men, the Children inhabit two worlds -- an everyday world of discrimination and poverty, and the world of `Realness`, where through costume and competition, dance and inspired performance, they imitate and transcend the powerful fantasy media that excludes them. `It`s like going through the Looking Glass`, says one. `It`s how being gay should be`.

Paris is Burning becomes firm friends with a number of the Children as they meet along the piers, where they exchange news and sex and practice voguing. Each of the Children belongs to the House that suits him best (the House of Chanel, the House of Saint Laurent, the House of Ninja, and others).

Monthly fashion balls - the dramatic pivot of the film`s disco-beat action and of the subculture itself - take place in Harlem or Brooklyn. Members of rival Houses talk about competing for trophies and cash prizes in categories such as High Fashion Eveningwear, Face, Model`s Body, and most curious and serious of all, `Realness`.

In the Realness category, drag queens try to pass for real women, butch queens for real men - that is, heterosexual men (there are also subcompetition categories like Executive Realness and Schoolboy Realness.) As one of the judges explains, `If you can pass the trained eye and not give away the fact that you`re gay, that`s when it`s Real`.

What is a `real` women, what is a `real` man? Paris is Burning is a giddy celebration of this subculture, these contradictions. And if you`re not interested in these questions, there`s always the superglamorous costumes.