Ray Boucher
Juru & Vitã. (Directors). Ribeiro, C. (Executive Producer). (2024). This is Ballroom / Salão De Baile. EPF Media. 94 mins. Documentary, This is Ballroom / Salão De Baile, co-directed by Juru and Vitã examines the subculture of Ballroom in Rio de Janeiro. It is an ecstatic, provocative, and colorful look into a very niche community of which many viewers may have limited knowledge. The community is set up as families that "compete" at the Ballroom. Family is the operative word, as the goal propounded in the film is that these Ballrooms give the attendees a sense of belonging, as a sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ members. As the documentary builds, however, the audience learns that the ballroom is not a Utopia. As the salon style dance club of Ballroom has its roots in American culture, there, perhaps, will be limited erudition attained by viewers already familiar with similar communities in New York and Los Angeles. But the more exotic locale of Brazil, along with a peek into the history of the trans community there as well as discussion of race, may add to to an understanding of the struggles of gender, sex, and race internationally. However, those discussions do not delve deeply into the culture, and often remain surface level. The dancing is fun, though, perhaps, a bit too sexual for a general audience, and the sniping, at times, detracts from the sense of community that Ballroom tries to achieve. New York's' LGBT Film Festival awarded the film with the Audience Award for Documentary Film, so that may just be this reviewer's opinion. Awards: Best Documentary Feature Film — Reeling: Chicago LGBTQ+ Int’l Film Festival, US Audience Award — Ojoloco Festival de Cine Iberoamericano de Valencia, Spain Best First Feature Documentary — Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Australia Best Documentary — Oslo/Fusion International Film Festival, Norway Audience Award — NewFest: New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, US Best Brazilian Film — MixBrasil Festival de Cultura da Diversidade, Brazil Best Diversity Film Prize — Afrika Film Festival Köln, Germany Audience Award / Queer Porto — International Queer Film Festival, Portugal Best First Feature Documentary — Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Australia Honorable Mention; Best Editing — Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Brazil