Product Details

• Actors: n, a
• Directors: Margaret Brown
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: Unknown (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: New Yorker Video / Cinema Guild
• DVD Release Date: January 13, 2009
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001J2XRLW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,559 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Order of Myths" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2007, it is still racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown (Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt), herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city s two carnivals. With unprecedented access, she traces the exotic world of secret mystic societies and centuries-old traditions and pageantry; diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, surreal masks and enormous paper mache floats. Against this opulent backdrop, she uncovers a tangled web of historical violence and power dynamics, elusive forces that keep this hallowed tradition organized along enduring color lines.
 
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Director Margaret Brown and Cinematographer Michael Simmonds
- Deleted Scenes
- Footage from the film s Mobile, Alabama Premiere
- Theatrical Trailer
- English 5.1 Soundtrack
- Scene Selections

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Order of Myths: Best Documentary of 2008, January 7, 2009

By 

Edwin B. Arnaudin (Brevard, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Order of Myths (DVD)

Mobile, Ala. is home to the nation's oldest Mardi Gras festival. During the two weeks of pageants and parades, the locals abide by a tradition of racially segregated celebrations, simultaneously exposing behavior that is both taboo and honored.

Director Margaret Brown's expert use of irony and social commentary in "The Order of Myths" is as captivating as the elaborate and pricey galas of the 2007 occurrence. The uncomfortably real moments are most evident through a running theme of whites making reference to future hopes for equality, then handing off a discarded piece of china to a black server working an all-white event. The tension peaks when members of the black Mardi Gras queen's family comment that their ancestors were brought to Mobile on the slave ship Clotilda by ancestors of the white queen's family. The just-so manner in which the black family references its past is consistent throughout the film, keeping tensions to a minimum but acknowledging them nonetheless.

The sense of ambivalence is also prevalent on the white side. Comments are made concerning hopes for integrated celebrations, but the same people later express a desire for maintaining the rich traditions that are enjoyed by each group. Folks acknowledge the touchiness of the situation and how the Mobile celebrations are different by exhibiting such throwback values, but few are in a hurry to make a change.

An additional layer of intrigue is found in the film's first interviewee, a friendly-looking and eerily familiar older Southern gentleman. His second appearance identified him as Dwain Luce and it clicked for me that he was featured in Ken Burns' "The War." Curious if Luce's celebrity status had influenced Brown's editing decision to place him at the film's opening, those wonderings were shattered in Luce's final clip when an additional identifier appeared below his name: "My Grandfather." It was a stunning epiphany that made me feel, through my dual-film appreciation of Luce and rapport with Brown (who I interviewed for a newspaper article), like Dwain Luce's unknown friend.

Take time to see this film. It was criminally left off of the short list of 15 films from which 5 will be nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar. "The Order of Myths" is better than the best on that list, including the excellent "Man on Wire" and "Trouble the Water."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Documentary on Many Levels, January 15, 2009

By 

Tomazulob - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Order of Myths (DVD)

This little film by Margaret Brown can easily be overlooked--but it shouldn't. This could also be easily categorized as a film about tolerated racism--but it is so much more. Anybody not from the US who does not understand why the racism is so strong in this country needs to see this film for a sliver of the history that shows the roots of it. For those who think racism is a permanent part of the fabric of this country, they need to see this to show that there is hope that this is changing. For those who want change now, this is not the film for you, as the greatest strength of this film is the display of generations of change that are and have taken place.

Brown has taken the oldest tradition of Mardi Gras in the country (no, not New Orleans, but Mobile--another statement made in this movie) and, according to the extra section of the DVD, inadvertently used it to show the history of the Mardi Gras, the history of race relations in the city, and, from a microcosmic point of view, the emotions of the participants (past and present) of the two simultaneous groups who celebrate this event. A King and Queen of Mardi Gras are selected from each racial community (Caucasian and African-American) with a following of these four people around. What I found particularly interesting about these four people was the preconceived notions I had as a former resident of the South and how 3 of the 4 evolved in front of the camera. Felix was basically exactly as I suspected, but he still evolved as well. The last 20 minutes of the film were especially encouraging and heart-warming.

I can not recommend this film highly enough. While it starts a bit slowly, it is well worth the wait. The interview of some of the participants along with Ms. Brown at a screening in the extras section is also enlightening. I am almost 60 years old, and I have seen some changes in race relations in this country. This film has shown me that in the next 60 years there will most likely be more changes and evolution in this area, but it will be very slow. I am heartened by the future for my kids and grandkids in being part of this process. Thank you, Margaret.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Opinion from Mobile, April 8, 2009

By 

stoic (Mobile AL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Order of Myths (DVD)

People in Mobile eagerly anticipated Margaret Brown's "Order of Myths," a documentary about Mobile's 2007 Mardi Gras celebration. It is fair to say that the film has made a strong impression locally. After noticing that there were no Amazon reviewers from Mobile, I thought that I would offer my two cents.

OOM is a consistently-interesting film. I have attended Mobile's Mardi Gras many times, but I learned a lot about how Mobile's elite controls the yearly celebration. Also, while I do not want to spoil the film, Brown has a deeply-personal connection to Mobile's Mardi Gras that will add to viewers' interest in the film. Finally, OOM contains beautiful footage that shows off Mobile's historic districts.

I don't think that OOM is a great film, however. Brown focuses almost exclusively on the white and black elites of Mobile, while leaving out the vast majority of the people from both communities. Viewers will leave OOM with little idea of what it feels like to experience Mardi Gras in Mobile. Moreover, there is often an uncomfortable, voyeuristic quality to OOM; Brown admits that she did not tell the participants that she was going to focus almost exclusively on race. One cringes upon seeing many of Brown's subjects commit gaffe after gaffe.

The most-objectionable aspect of the film is that Brown includes a long section on the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile; this is a gratuitous cheap shot in that Donald's murder had nothing whatsoever to do with Mardi Gras. In the director's commentary, Brown, apparently stung by criticism on this point, is at some pains to explain why Donald's murder is relevant. Brown does not mention that one of the men who murdered Donald was executed and the other is serving a life sentence.

In the end, I suppose your opinion of Order of Myths may reveal more about you than it does about the film. I recommend that you see the film and judge for yourself.