FARAI CHIDEYA, host:

I'm Farai Chideya and this is News & Notes. It's the tale of two Mardi Gras. Some historians say Mobile, Alabama, is home to oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the country, but there have always been two Fat Tuesday festivities there, one for blacks, one for whites. Mobile native Margaret Brown trained her cameras on the city's Mardi Gras tradition. She found two worlds shaped by racial segregation. Margaret's with us now to talk about her new documentary "The Order of Myths." Hi, Margaret.

Ms. MARGARET BROWN (Filmmaker, "The Order of Myths"): Hi.

CHIDEYA: So, you know, your film captures just these intimate moments, and you know, I could bring up so many different scenes, but one that stuck out for me was about midway through the film and it takes place in the kitchen at a formal debutante's party for the white Mardi Gras court. So, can you describe that scene for us?

Ms. BROWN: Yeah, I think you're talking about the scene in which Brittain Youngblood, who is one of the main characters who we focus on, she's one of the white debutantes, and she comes into the kitchen to speak to Pat Dixon, who is sort of the woman in the house, who's the housekeeper for this house, and it's a house that Brittain was raised in, even though it's not her home. I'm a good friend of hers, and they have this exchange where Pat is doing the dishes and Brittain's dressed up for the party, which is in her honor. And it's sort of an awkward exchange because Brittain's kind of in the way of the people who are, you know, preparing the plates, who are black workers.

CHIDEYA: So, you know, let's listen to a little bit of the film. There's a black Mardi Gras queen Stefannie Lucas, and she's talking about how she and her king, them being the first in history to attend the coronation of the white king and queen.

(Soundbite of documentary "The Order of Myths")

Ms. STEFANNIE LUCAS: You know, if it's historically white, or if it's historically black, you know, they keep it that way because that's just how it is, but it's just the way, too, for Mobile to feel OK, well, yeah, like I say, there is a barrier because these groups were founded as African-Americans organizations or a Caucasian organization. But it's not a snobbish, OK, we can't associate with them because they're this.

CHIDEYA: When you think about the ways in which - and we're going to hear a little bit in a moment from the white Mardi Gras king in your film, but when you think about the way that this woman navigated race, and class, and her city, describe her a little bit for us.

Ms. BROWN: Well, Stefannie teaches fifth grade across from the king she reigned with this same year, Joseph Roberson, and I guess she was very careful talking about it. You know, I think in the film there's a moment that happens where she actually goes to the white coronation. It's the first time in history this has ever happened that the black king and queen went to the coronation. And she decides to go, and it sort of changed things in Mobile.

CHIDEYA: In what way?

Ms. BROWN: Well, I mean, now that's a tradition that's started, and I think, you know, in Mobile, it's hard to start new traditions sometimes, and you know, Stefannie was a part of that.

CHIDEYA: So, let's listen to another part of the film. Here is the white Mardi Gras king Max Bruckmann talking about Dixie traditionalism.

(Soundbite of documentary "The Order of Myths")

Mr. MAX BRUCKMANN: It's like the same anywhere. The dress code in the South is people like to get dressed up and go to a party. Yeah, for people in the South, it kind of says, look, we're traditionalists, we like the fact that we have a heritage, and we like the fact that, you know, we're tied back to history. So, we're going to keep doing what our ancestors did, and that's what they did.

CHIDEYA: What about the whole play of history versus racism? There are many poignant moments in the film where people talk about the difference between in their mind, or the difference or the separation of history and race, and all that. How did you make sense of it both from his perspective and from your own perspective?

Ms. BROWN: I mean, I think the word tradition is this word that's sort of used a lot when people feel uncomfortable about something that they know is probably wrong in their heart, but they want to somehow excuse it. They say, oh, it's tradition, you know, and so this word is used a lot in the film, or it - you know, people use it a lot when they need to just say, like, well, this is just how it's just always been, and then it's used sort of on both sides of this racial divide, I noticed, but it's, you know, it's complicated, obviously.

CHIDEYA: Now, Mobile was the destination of the last-known slave ship and the site of one of the last-recorded lynchings in the U.S. back in 1981, and there's this whole legacy of slavery that actually impacts the ancestors of the Mardi Gras queens. Can you tell us how they're connected?

Ms. BROWN: Yes, well, Helen Meaher, who was the white queen the year that I filmed, her family is responsible in 1859 for bringing - one of the families that brought the last slave ship to the United States, the Clotilde, and we found out after Mardi Gras was over and we are interviewing Stefannie's grandparents that she was - her grandfather was descended from this ship and, you know, at that moment we sort of knew we had a movie because this whole idea of like, you know, history being alive in the present was something I was really searching for, something concrete to sort of anchor all these themes that kept coming up in the film, and this was a way in which it really came alive.

CHIDEYA: Now, I noticed that on your bio you did a music video for Cat Power, which is definitely something that you don't think of necessarily as fitting in with a documentary like this. How did you - you're from Mobile? Right?

Ms. BROWN: Right. Yeah.

CHIDEYA: How did you get interested in specifically doing this?

Ms. BROWN: Well, in doing this film - it's mainly about...

CHIDEYA: And documenting your city, and also...

Ms. BROWN: Right.

CHIDEYA: Did you ever feel like it was a personal risk? I don't mean physically but emotionally to do this work?

Ms. BROWN: Oh, my gosh. It was such - I mean, it was sort of like, yeah, I mean, I think these films always get more personal than you count on when you start, you know. And it's definitely like a personal film, you know. I have a very - the access I got, like, as a white filmmaker, was mainly due to my grandfather who - you know, these mystic organizations are pretty private, or they're very private and aren't filmed normally. And he was able to say, hey, my granddaughter is making this movie, and it's about Mardi Gras, and can you help her out, you know, and talk to her and see if you want to do this? So, you know, in that way, I mean, I got a lot of the access through personal connections. And also it's a story about where I'm from and, you know, as revealed in a late moment in the film also kind of who I am, however complicated that might be.

CHIDEYA: Well, Margaret, I want to thank you so much.

Ms. BROWN: Thanks.

CHIDEYA: That was Margaret Brown, director of the new documentary, "The Order of Myths." The film is playing in 50 cities, including Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Atlanta. And she joined us from the NPR studios in New York City.

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