Wild Magnolias
2023 · 12m · USA
Directed by Alexandra Kern
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
In New Orleans, teenage proteges of barber Chief Bo Dollis Jr. learn the traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians, a centuries-old subculture that shapes youth through mentorship, artistic expression, and the painstaking craft of hand-sewn ceremonial suits.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Mardi Gras Indian mentorship and hand-sewn ceremonial suits in New Orleans. A perfectly competent NPR-doc, the kind that wins audience awards and disappears — fine, but I've seen the festival template.
Kern's portrait of Chief Bo Dollis Jr. mentoring teenagers in Mardi Gras Indian craft sits in the RaMell Ross lineage of patient Black community observation — and a permanent home at the New Orleans Jazz Museum is meaningful institutional weight. The year-long-suit framing is the right structural anchor.
Centering a barber-chief mentor and the year-long sewing labor behind one day of Mardi Gras Indian celebration is the right inversion — the suit-making is the story, the parade is just the punctuation. 15:35 observational doc, archived permanently at the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
Reviews
The cinematography and camera movements, shot by Kern and Eric Vera, are all very gentle, and bring to the screen the beauty of the traditions and the participants with great sensitivity.
The spectacular Mardi Gras artworks born of a unique New Orleans tradition.
Festivals
- New Orleans Film Festival 2023
- Seattle International Film Festival 2023
- Austin Film Festival 2023
- Atlanta Film Festival 2023
- River Run International Film Festival 2023
- New Filmmakers Los Angeles 2024, Best Short Documentary
- New Hampshire Film Festival 2023