MARDI GRAS

Latest news and celebrations surrounding Carnival season in Mobile, Alabama

How we can move Mardi Gras forward and with it, the city of Mobile

The recent local screening of Margaret Brown's "Order of Myths" has occasioned a lot of discussion about race and Mardi Gras in Mobile. Such discussion is good, because we need to look unflinchingly at our two Mardi Gras.

While many of us have avoided doing so by saying that it's our "tradition" or our "heritage" and thus exempt from thoughtful examination, the rest of the nation feels quite differently.

Call it Mobile's dirty little secret, or Mobile's dirty linen. Either way, with the debut of the documentary "The Order of Myths," the secret is out and the dirty linen has been aired.

The secret is as simple and as complicated as this: Mobile's historic Mardi Gras celebration -- the nation's oldest -- is segregated along racial lines.

One query has been a constant in the spirited question-and-answer sessions that have followed screenings of "The Order of Myths" at international film festivals, according to a member of Mardi Gras royalty who has taken part in some of them.

Someone in each audience can be counted on to ask it of filmmaker Margaret Brown, said Helen Meaher, who was the Mobile Carnival Association queen during the 2007 seasonal celebrations chronicled in the film.

Reviews and film festival Q&A sessions following screenings of filmmaker Margaret Brown's documentary "The Order of Myths" have largely concerned themselves with the film's portrayal of Mobile's racially separated Mardi Gras societies and celebrations.

The film, which opened in New York today, will premiere in Mobile, Brown's hometown, next week with a screening Thursday at the Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile.

"I didn't have an agenda going in, like this was about race," Brown told the Press-Register. "Things about race definitely rose to the surface in the film. In a way, that is what the film got focused on."

Before embarking on the documentary, Brown said, she actually had planned to make a narrative film set in her hometown -- a partially conceived story about a reluctant Mardi Gras queen.

For research, Brown began interviewing people back home. Soon after, she abandoned the notion of a fictional Mardi Gras story and decided to document the real deal.

"Just the way people talk in Mobile is just so much more interesting than anything I felt I could write or make up," Brown explained.

(For a complete report, see Sunday's Press-Register.)

Filmmaker Margaret Brown, who came home to document Mardi Gras in Mobile last year, will bring her feature-length documentary film on the subject to a hometown premiere at the end of next month.

"The Order of Myths," Brown's 97-minute examination of the season and how it is celebrated in Mobile, has attracted the notice of reviewers and film festival attendees for its focus on the city's racially separated Mardi Gras societies and celebrations. The film -- which enjoyed a generally well-received world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, earlier this year -- also won the attention of The Cinema Guild, a New York-based film distributor that will put "The Order of Myths" in domestic theaters and eventually on DVD.

Despite today's Government Accountability Office ruling against a contract that would bring a major aircraft manufacturing operation to Mobile, the city plans to proceed with a Friday parade celebrating economic advances.

City spokeswoman Barbara Drummond said today that while the ruling was a disappointment, organizers had also intended for the parade to celebrate other developments, such as the ThyssenKrupp steel mill being built in north Mobile County and expansions of the Austal shipyard.

The Mardi Gras-style parade will start at 6:30 p.m. near the Mobile Civic Center and feature nearly 40 parade units. Drummond said that Airbus and Northrop Grumman Corp. still will be represented in the parade, and that Northrop executive Leroy Barnidge still will ride. Paul Meyer, Northrop's vice president of Air Mobility Systems, was to ride but instead is traveling to Washington, D.C., to address the GAO ruling, Drummond said.

"Mobile is not out of the ball game and we are still proud of the progress that is happening in this city," she said.

Filmmaker Margaret Brown, who came home to document Mardi Gras in Mobile last year, will bring her feature-length documentary film on the subject to a hometown premiere at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 31, at the Saenger Theatre.

"The Order of Myths," Brown's 97-minute examination of the season and how it is celebrated in Mobile, has attracted the notice of reviewers and film festival attendees for its focus on the city's racially separated Mardi Gras societies and celebrations. The film -- which enjoyed a generally well-received world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, earlier this year -- also won the attention of The Cinema Guild, a New York-based film distributor that will put "The Order of Myths" in domestic theaters and eventually on DVD.

Tickets will go on sale Friday for $12 plus a service charge and will be available through the Saenger Box Office and all Ticketmaster outlets.

Brown, who is based in Austin, Texas, will take part in a question-and-answer session following the Mobile screening, said theater manager Chris Penton.

(For more information, see the report on Thursday's Press-Register.)

A feature-length documentary film about Mardi Gras in Mobile that premiered early this year at the Sundance Film Festival will be distributed in theaters and eventually on DVD by New York-based The Cinema Guild.

"The Order of Myths," which was directed by native Mobilian Margaret Brown, may be shown on a big screen in Mobile this summer, according to Ryan Krivoshey, director of distribution for The Cinema Guild.

"We are opening it in New York on July 25," Krivoshey said. "We're opening it in Los Angeles on Aug. 8. We are looking to open it in Mobile right in between those two dates."

Details about a Mobile theatrical engagement and other theatrical screenings have not yet been worked out, but an announcement can be expected soon, Krivoshey said.

Since the January premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, reviews have focused on the film's portrayal of Mobile's racially separated Mardi Gras societies and celebrations.

For more information, see Thursday's Press-Register.