Over the past 30 years, one filmmaker has documented the voguing ballroom scene in New York City and thereby amassed an incredible trove of footage from different parts and shades of the scene.
Now, Nicolas Jenkins has taken his countless hours of footage and compiled them into an 11-minute short film called "Walk!"
The filmmaker told The Huffington Post that he has noticed an explosion of mainstream interest in vogue and ballroom culture over the last several years -- something he sees as both a good and a bad thing.
"The Ballroom scene has always been inspiring to me because of the amazing sense of community I witnessed and by the way they celebrated and idolized some of societies most marginalized," Jenkins told The Huffington Post. "I personally find the white mainstream LGBT community depressingly very segregated. The LGBT mainstream has much to learn from the ballroom community and needs to see that it is possible to embrace and love each others differences.... But I am [also] concerned that with voguing’s success in crossing over into the mainstream to communities of the 'non marginalized' that there is a risk the dance may lose some of its connections to its roots. I’ve been around long enough to watch too many subcultures get absorbed into the mainstream and eventually get commodified."
We're so grateful to have this archive of amazing footage preserved for future generations. Check out "Walk!" above and head here to see more from Jenkins.
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