Absolutely brilliant

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I had no idea that Mobile, Alabama had the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the nation. Well before New Orleans was even founded, Mobile was already doing their best to live it up before Lent. And, while it's not as big as the one in New Orleans, it is a big to-do--with incredibly lavish costumes, floats and pageantry. However, it also is a giant anachronism--with TWO celebrations--one that is all-black and one that is all-white! In the 21st century, this seems very weird--and highly reminiscent of the recent film "The Help"! In many ways, it's a self-imposed continuation of the old 'separate but equal' notion.This film is in some ways quite sad. Seeing the two events being so distinctly separate is a sad reminder that you can't legislate decency--and a lot of folks STILL are hanging on to their racist roots. However, and this came late in the show, there are FINALLY some signs that this situation is changing a bit. See the film and see what I mean. The show is quite good and I like how they simply let everyone talk without commentary--to let the viewer see it and draw their own conclusions. Well worth seeing and I hope folks outside the USA understand that this is NOT indicative of country--just one small backward portion that is finally starting to move into the 21st century.By the way, throughout the film many people talk about tradition and reconnecting with their history yet NEVER mention slavery. It's obviously the elephant sitting in the room.

This was a great film and quite illuminating. Technically, it was very well made. The editors of the film deserve a lot of praise - being able to pull out so many nuanced details, from real life nonetheless!, and piece them together into an overarching story that coalesced so well is no small feat. For that alone they deserve much praise.The storyline itself is fascinating - an in-depth analysis of Mobile, Alabama's segregated Mardi Gras celebrations. I agree with another reviewer who said that the class aspects deserved more analysis (but perhaps that would have bogged down the message?).I can't help but walk away from this movie (and the Q&A) feeling like the black people of this town are pleading (screaming if they could), to have the white people just TALK to them about the need for better integration. But the whites just keep turning a deaf ear to them. During the Q&A, almost every black person who stood up to talk into the mic (on stage and in the audience), brought up this need to TALK about the issue. And almost every white person who spoke up ignored these requests. The whites in the audience asked about the technical aspects of the film, congratulated the filmmaker - one man clearly tried to start a conversation by asking the filmmaker's intent, but even he fell flat because he wasn't pointed enough. Even the self-described liberal woman of the high-society group didn't acknowledge these requests to talk. Instead she rambled on and on about superficial things that were important to *her* (like how it felt to have a camera stuck in her face). The filmmaker herself also wouldn't talk a firm stand on where she stood. And that's a damn shame, because let's face it - the white people of this town are the ones who have the power. They are the ones who need to step it up. Over and over in the film, we heard the black people saying they WANT to integrate. Any statements opposing this were all hearsay - never once a black person say on camera that they didn't want to.So as it stands, it is up to the white people of this town to respond. And I hope they do.

In itself, this is not a bad film. It offers, what I'm sure many white people will feel, a completely unbiased view on the segregation in Mobile, Alabama. I beg to differ. What is perhaps the films greatest strength and its greatest weakness, is that the maker comes from a 'prominent' white family (read: most likely deeply conservative) with still a lot of economic power (read: used to have many slaves in the past). This is why I'm suspicious of the films' unbiasedness.However, there are ominous indicators that the maker is really trying to be as open-minded of her background. Of this, the mentioning of the trees is the most poignant. A VIP white man, is explaining that they really like trees, because of tradition and so on. He seems to be completely unaware that trees in the Deep South symbolize lynchings of blacks. It's rather insensitive. It's like stressing the fact to Jews that Germans really like to cook their food on gas. In itself there's nothing wrong with that statement, but you catch my drift. The fact that the makers choose to put this in, seems to say that she's not afraid to mention the darker parts of her past. Or, the more depressing explanation would be that the maker herself is not aware of the fact that trees and the South stand for lynchings.Also, the similarity between all the Mardi Gras Orders and the KKK is high. It doesn't require a lot of imagination that the KKK took symbols and rituals from these Orders. And it wouldn't surprise me to learn that many of these Orders had been highly instrumental in oppressing the African American people.The end of the film is even more sinister. It is revealed that the grandfatherly man who is interviewed throughout the film is in fact the grandfather of the filmmaker. His last line is: "For what I am about to say, you have to stop recording" And indeed, the credits start rolling at that point. Now, in any other film this would have seemed a triumph of respect of privacy over the present day omnipresent eye of the camera. But in this case I imagined that he would tell her all sorts of horrible stuff that the Order of Myths used to do.In closing, I am reasonably sure that the filmmaker was trying for a balanced view and she might have achieved that, within her capabilities. Insofar as anyone can be impartial, she might have come closest. She seems to be best embodied by the Prodigal Liberal daughter, who returns to embrace her deeply conservative "heritage".However, it's ultimately a quite depressing film and subject, since all the white people are a.) insisting that they don't wanna change anything and b. are saying that black people WANT to be segregated themselves. We never hear the black people say that, actually. And c.) the black people don't seem very confident in their ability to change things, and seemed to have completely settled in their subservient role.Definitely a case of "Even Obama can not", in the sense that even an Obama-presidency won't change this in any, any way.

I enjoyed the film a lot. There was one lady who related a story about how celebrities who performed in Mobile in the early days had to stay with black families in their homes because they were not allowed in hotels. She said that the famous singer Paul Robeson stayed with her family and even sang a lullaby to her when she was an infant.A great story, if in fact it were true, but I tend to doubt her story as she referred to him on, I think, three times as Paul "Roberson" or mister "Roberson". If he truly did sing to her, would she, as an adult, continue to mis-pronounce his name? His name was Paul Robe-son, no "R" in his name. It was a common error at the time, but surely not for someone who grew up with that story for 30 some years.