Diddy’s “Paris Is Burning” Trailer: Materialism In Black And White

Diddy sure had a lot of fun at Paris Fashion Week this year — so much fun, in fact, that he’s decided to lay it all bare in an upcoming documentary short. Filmed by French director Julien Bachelet, Paris Is Burning follows the Bad Boy mogul as he navigates in and out of limos through a storm of paparazzi flashbulbs, layers himself in Rolex watches and hypes a nightclub crowd from a VIP view. But you’ll have to excuse us if we’re not shivering with excitement to see this one-percenter’s report on “What I Did Last Summer.”

In the film’s trailer, released Monday (Apr. 16), Diddy muses, “Paris is burning, you can smell the smoke, we in this motherfucker, fo’ sho’, fo’ sho'” as he makes his way through a hallway, a rolled cigarette tucked behind his ear. Confoundingly scored to Gotye‘s “Somebody That I Used To Know” (is the point that Diddy is breaking up with Paris?), the clip cuts to crystal chandeliers, designer luggage and Diddy’s branded vodka, Ciroc. After two decades in the game, the charm of luxury has yet to wear off.

The title Paris Is Burning is a clumsy reference to the heartbreaking 1990 documentary of the same name. The original Jennie Livingston-directed film chronicled the “ball” culture in New York City’s marginalized black, Latino gay, drag and transgendered communities. This was the same place where Madonna learned to Vogue and America heard phrases such as “throwing shade” for the first time. Its masterful examination of race, class and gender — values precisely opposite those presented in Diddy’s jet-setting extravaganza — won it the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991.

And so we’re unsure of whether it’s with arrogance or ignorance that Diddy co-opted the title of such an important film for a vanity project that is, frankly, not very important at all.

Diddy’s Paris Is Burning is “Comming Soon”.

Are you excited to see Diddy’s bank-rolled European vacation on film? Tell us in the comments below, or on Twitter and Facebook.