The Order of Myths (2008)

Directed by

Margaret Brown

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 37m

Rated

12

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 13 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary looks at Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama. It shows how Black and White participants have separate mystic societies and examines the city's history of racial division. The film also follows early efforts by the two groups to interact.

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What happens

The Order of Myths is a 2008 documentary film directed by Margaret Brown. It focuses on the Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, the oldest in the United States. It reveals the separate mystic societies established and maintained by Black and White groups, and acknowledges the complex racial history of a city with a slaveholding past. While showing the mystic societies' ties to economic, class and racial stratification, the film showed the beginnings of interaction between the Black and White courts. It tells some of the history of Africatown, a community formed north of Mobile in 1860 by Africans from Ghana, transported illegally as slaves to Mobile decades after the end of the slave trade. The film competed in the Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It had a limited release in New York in July 2008, and ran on Independent Lens, a PBS series featuring independent films, in 2009. It was distributed by The Cinema Guild. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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