David Redmon’s Mardi Gras: Made in China comes out on DVD today, as the first release from Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s DVD distribution gambit, Carnivalesque Films. I returned home from San Diego last night to find a screener waiting for me, and though I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, as a big fan of Redmon and Sabins later films, Kamp Katrina and Intimidad, I’m excited to see it. I’m even more excited after reading this GreenCine interview with Redmon, where he shares some of the secret history of the Bourbon Street party scene. An excerpt:

The first such recorded event in exchange for beads was in 1978, and it was actually the showing of the penis…The women first started yelling at the men to show theirs, and initially this was called weenie-wagging (men dangling their weenies from balconies). After that is when the beads became big - and became a commodity that could be marketed as a kind of commerce - in exchange for nudity.

Oh, equal opportunity objectification. What became of you?