Southern Mardi Gras celebrations have long made an art of turning everyday reality on its head, but what seems most upside down about the 300-year-old celebration in Mobile, Alabama is the fact that it is still willingly segregated between the city’s black and white citizens. Even with a disturbingly recent history of racial violence (the city saw its last lynching in 1981) the community seems driven toward reconciling the descendents of slaves and slave owners that make up its population. Capturing the bizarre ritual celebrations and complex meditations on race by local residents, Margaret Brown’s film presents a unique portrait of a place where the line between past and present is continually and intentionally blurred.

Presented as part of the Depth of Field 2010-2011 Series: Spaces and Places

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