***TIME CHANGES & Updated Parade Information*** NOMTOC will forsake its West Bank route to kick off Sunday's parades at 9 a.m., Berni said. Following will be the all-women's Krewe of Iris, followed by Okeanos, Mid-City and Thoth in Sunday's mid-day line-up. The Krewe of Bacchus is not expected to alter its 5:15 p.m. start on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, the irreverent Krewe of Tucks, which is scheduled to roll Uptown at noon on Saturday, will instead open Monday's revelry by preceding the Krewe of Proteus along the Uptown course starting at 3 p.m. Harry Connick Jr.'s superkrewe of Orpheus headlines Monday night's events with a 6 p.m. roll. City officials confirm that the Krewe of Endymion will roll at 5:30 -- weather permitting. The Canal Street Loop has also been eliminated. They also ask those going to the parade not to go out to the route until an hour before the parade starts. In Metairie, the Krewe of Isis has moved back its start time to 7:30 p.m
About the DVD The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2007, it is still racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown (Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt), herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city s two carnivals. With unprecedented access, she traces the exotic world of secret mystic societies and centuries-old traditions and pageantry; diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, surreal masks and enormous paper mache floats. Against this opulent backdrop, she uncovers a tangled web of historical violence and power dynamics, elusive forces that keep this hallowed tradition organized along enduring color lines.
