‘I’m Your Venus’ with special guests Kimberly Reed, Dominique Jackson and Jonovia Chase; plus ‘Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All’ review

For this Out Takes, we’re going back to the Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival to look at ‘I’m Your Venus’, a powerful film from the U.S. that is described as a vital companion piece to Jennie Livingston’s legendary 1990 ballroom documentary ‘Paris Is Burning’. One of the iconic trans stars of that seminal film, Venus Xtravaganza, was murdered before its release and thirty-five years later, her two families – the biological Pellagattis and ballroom Xtravaganzas – unite to honour her legacy and seek justice. Old wounds are reopened as her cold case is reexamined, amidst a fight to posthumously amend her birth certificate to finally reflect her actual name and gender. Overflowing with love for its subject, this cathartic documentary is a moving ode to Venus’ life and impact, and the power of the ballroom community. We were honoured to be joined by the films director, New York based trans filmmaker Kimberly Reed, and two of the executive producers on the film, Jonovia Chase and Dominique Jackson, to discuss their involvement with the film and the importance of continuing to tell Venus’s story and the importance of ballroom on queer culture. We also reviewed ‘Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All’, a comprehensive documentary about the Grammy-winning folk-rock duo that explores their lives, music, and activist projects over the course of their incredible 40+ year career.

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