Margaret Brown’s documentary The Order of Myths delves into the secret societies of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. I talked to Margaret about segregation, access to forbidden parties, and shooting in formal wear.

Be sure to check out Karina’s review of the film here.

 

 SXSW 2008 Interview: Margaret Brown of Order of Myths [5:55m]: Play Now | Download

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Margaret Brown’s The Order of Myths is an immersion into the archaic miasma that is Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. Mobile’s Mardi Gras is the oldest in the world, and in keeping with tradition, its two weeks worth of parties and parades are mostly segregated. Using Mardi Gras season as a microcosm for a portrait of contemporary race relations in the city, Brown gets a filmmaker’s dream gift in the black and white Mardi Gras associations’ selection of their queens. Queen Stephanie, a black schoolteacher, is a descendant of slaves who were transported on the Clothilde, the last slave ship to enter the US. When the Clothilde came ashore, there was a fire and the passengers escaped into the woods, ultimately settling in an area that came to be known as Africatown. Queen Helen Meaher, whose family now owns most of the land in Africatown, is a descendant of the company that brought the Clothilde over. “My people was on her people’s ship,” Stephanie says, with a slow, matter-of-fact nod. That nod confirms the film’s thesis: casual racism is not an outrage in Mobile, it’s an institution.

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Shopping With Filmmakers: Margaret Brown

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In this video, shot at the Sundance Film Festival, Joe Swanberg goes shopping for Western wear with Margaret Brown, who talks about her excellent documentary, The Order of Myths. Brown talks about sleep deprivation, how filmmaker Michelange Quay provoked an “emotional” Myths Q & A, and why, “like it or not,” Sundance is a valuable launching pad for independent film.

If you’ve watched the last two episodes of our Sundance video coverage, you’ve learned a little bit about the spoils of Sundance swag. Designer pooper scoops are great and all, but I always like to see filmmakers passing out something that promotes their film in a clever way. In the industry lounge a few minutes ago, I stumbled over a friend of filmmaker Margaret Brown, who was affixing stickers for Browns’ The Order of Myths to a carton full of Mini Moon Pies. Moon Pies play a surprisingly significant role in Brown’s film, which is otherwise about race relations and Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. It probably goes without saying, but this kind of thing is so much more interesting and valuable to a weary journalist than a bag full of random corporate stuff.