The Order of Myths

The Order of Myths is a 2008 documentary film directed by Margaret Brown. It focuses on the Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, the oldest in the United States. It reveals the separate mystic societies established and maintained by black and white groups, and acknowledges the complex racial history of a city with a slaveholding past. While showing the mystic societies' ties to economic, class and racial stratification, the film also showed the beginnings of interaction between the black and white courts. It also tells some of the history of Africatown, a community formed north of Mobile in 1860 by Africans from Ghana, transported illegally as slaves to Mobile decades after the end of the slave trade.

For the mystic society, see Order of Myths.

The Order of Myths
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMargaret Brown
Produced byMargaret Brown
Sara Cross
Written byMargaret Brown
CinematographyMichael Simmonds
Edited byMichael Taylor
Margaret Brown
Geoffrey Richman
Distributed byThe Cinema Guild
Release date
  • January 19, 2008 (2008-01-19) (Sundance Film Festival)
  • July 25, 2008 (2008-07-25) (United States)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film competed in the Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.[1] It had a limited release in New York on July 25, 2008, and ran on Independent Lens, a PBS series featuring independent films, in 2009.[2] It was distributed by The Cinema Guild.

Critical reception

The film appeared on several critics' top-ten lists of the best films of 2008. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon named it the 9th-best film of 2008,[3] as did Ella Taylor of LA Weekly (along with Moving Midway)[3] and Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe.[3]

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References
  1. "2008 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in Competition" (PDF). November 28, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 25, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
  2. "Independent Lens: The Order of Myths". Independent Television Service (ITVS). January 26, 2009. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
  3. "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 2, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
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