More than a documentary about the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the south, Order of Myths encompasses the eccentric characters of Mobile and the still-lingering racial tensions that surround them.
More than a documentary about the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the south, Order of Myths encompasses the eccentric characters of Mobile and the still-lingering racial tensions that surround them.
In director Margaret Brown's The Order of Myths, she explores the parties, parades, and lesser-known gatherings that encompass the hedonistic event known as Mardi Gras, discovering that complex issues of class, race, and politics are seldom left behind, even in the name of celebration. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi
A well-constructed documentary about a surprising remnant of segregation in the new South, The Order of Myths gracefully explores Mobile's Mardi Gras celebrations and profiles the young people playing at royalty at these ceremonies' hearts.
On both sides of the Mobile Mardi Gras divide, people seem to be edging toward a desire for reconciliation, but there remain significant differences about what that might entail.
Mobile and its still-segregated Mardi Gras tradition seem to be world unto themselves, presented without reference to the wider world's pressing issues--the failing economy, environmental concerns, war in Iraq. The documentary's impressive compilation of
Reveals ceremonies that are exotic, unexpected, colorful and incredibly ritualized, layered with vast amounts of denial, submerged agendas and hypocrisy.
[An] affectingly insightful and well-informed documentary. Myths taps into a special kind of Southern tradition%u2014with underlying racial overtones as a societal hovering factor.
A revealing anthropological portrait and reminder of American places where young people grow up surrounded by tradition, both positive and negative, and stay to carry it on.
Trapped under the weight of hundreds of years of racial animosity and mistrust, with few clues as to how to work themselves free, the celebrants of the oldest Mardi Gras in the country take refuge in their traditions.
Ostensibly about Mobile, Alabama's annual Mardi Gras tradition, which dates back to 1703, Margaret Brown's documentary is actually an examination of the racial divide in a city that claims there is none.
"The Order of Myths" is a documentary focusing on the 2007 Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama which date back further than those in New Orleans. For each Mardi Gras, there is a white king and queen and a black king and queen, each with their accompanying courts.(The white monarchs are drawn from the wealthiest
and oldest families of the city and this also doubles as a coming out into society. For example, an ancestor of the white queen's owned the last ship that brought slaves into Mobile.) Even the mystic societies that hold parades in the days leading up to Mardi Gras are almost entirely segregated.(The members of these societies wear masks and I could not help but wonder if there was any historical connection to the Ku Klux Klan. Especially considering that Mobile had a lynching as recent as 1981...) Since tradition and history are the apparent reasons for the continuing segregation, then most of these events could easily be written off as a particularly southern phenomenon. In general, the documentary does not probe very deep beneath the surface and does not have anything terribly profound to say concerning race relations.But there are signs of hope which include the election of the first black mayor in the city's history. One member of the white court is much more liberal and open to new ideas than others of her ilk. But come on, guys. This was 2007. What is taking so long?
July 27, 2008
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
very very strange documentary about how the first Mardi Gras was held in Mobile, Alabama and the continuing tradition that comes along with it.
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