In 2022, the Library of Congress announced that the short film titled “Mardi Gras Carnival” has been added to the National Film Registry. The film, which captures about two minutes of the Krewe of Rex rolling through New Orleans in 1898, is this year’s oldest inductee.

But this film was actually long thought to be lost. Until Mackenzie Roberts Beasley, an audiovisual researcher and archivist for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, tracked it down in a trail that led her all the way to Amsterdam. She joins us for more about this film and the piece of history it exposes.

The 1997 documentary, “Testimony of a Big Chief” tells the story of the late Allison “Tootie” Montana, who led the Yellow Pocahontas Black Masking Indians for 50 years. This film was thought long-lost following the chaos of Katrina, until producers stumbled across an old DVD copy of it last fall. 

Director Will Horton and Tootie Montana’s son, Darryl Montana, tell us more about this film and what it means to see it again all these years later.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

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