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About Kiki and the movie:
In New York City, LGBTQ youth of color gather at the Christopher Street Pier to practice Ballroom, a performance-based art form popularized in the early 1990s by Madonna’s “Vogue” music video and the documentary “Paris Is Burning.” Twenty-five years after these cultural milestones, a new and distinct generation of LGBTQ youth has developed an artistic activist subculture known as the Kiki Scene.

“KIKI” follows seven members of the Kiki community over four years, using their preparations and performances at Kiki balls as a framework to explore their struggles with homelessness, illness, and discrimination, as well as their progress in gaining political influence and embracing gender expression. The film introduces us to Twiggy Pucci Garçon, the founder of the Haus of Pucci, alongside Chi Chi, Gia, Chris, Divo, Symba, and Zariya. Each of these individuals offers a unique and powerful personal story, shedding light on the Kiki scene and the broader experience of queer life for LGBTQ youth of color in the U.S.

Kiki balls, a central aspect of the Kiki subculture, provide a safe and empowering space for performers to express various gender identities, including stylized femininity that might otherwise provoke ridicule or violence in their home communities. Participants range from young teens to those in their twenties, many of whom have been cast out by their families or find themselves homeless. As LGBTQ people of color, they represent a minority within a minority, with a staggering 50% being HIV positive. The Kiki scene emerged as a peer-led initiative offering alternative family structures (“houses”), HIV awareness and testing, and performances promoting self-agency. It has grown into a significant organization with rules, leaders, and teams, now boasting hundreds of members in New York and beyond, including across the U.S. and Canada. Run by LGBTQ youth for LGBTQ youth, it draws on strategies from the Civil Rights, Gay Rights, and Black Power movements.

In this film, a collaboration between Kiki gatekeeper Twiggy Pucci Garçon and Swedish filmmaker Sara Jordenö, viewers gain exclusive access to this intense world, where fierce Ballroom competitions open up discussions about the Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter movements. This new generation of Ballroom youth adopts the motto “Not About Us Without Us,” and “KIKI” reflects this ethos with extensive support and trust from the community, featuring an exhilarating score by the renowned Ballroom and Voguing Producer Collective Qween Beat. Twiggy and Sara’s insider-outsider perspective revitalizes the portrayal of a marginalized community striving for visibility and genuine political power.