“Jason Berry’s film includes wonderful historical footage and profoundly personal interviews. With a lens on jazz funerals, he is capturing the soul of New Orleans in a film that will become a classic.” --
Walter Isaacson, former CEO of CNN News, author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs
Why do we dance for the dead? Famous the world over, jazz funerals have origins shrouded in mystery. Filmed over twenty-two years, the documentary explores race relations at a tearing time in American society. Burial traditions open the lens on New Orleans’s resilient culture. City of a Million Dreams draws from the 2018 book of the same title by Jason Berry.
Deb Cotton, an African American and observant Jew, leaves “hard-hearted Hollywood” for New Orleans, and becomes a chronicler of the parading clubs spawned by 19th century burial societies. Her zeal for the city grows as a blogger for Gambit Weekly, with the handle “Big Red”. As Deb probes her adopted culture, with hand-held footage laced through the film, Dr. Michael White, a prolific clarinetist and Xavier University professor, intones “the widow’s wail,” a cry of lamentation in the funeral marches. He plays joyous peals for the soul’s cutting-loose as the band leaves the cemetery, followed by dancers in “the second line.” As White says: “For someone dealing with American racism, you can be transformed into another world that really sets you free." Risen in the ranks of brass bands, White, too, is on a journey of self-discovery, seeking clues on an ancestor who played at the dawn of jazz.
Funerals unfold as caravans of memory, shaping White’s quest and Cotton’s epiphanies. New Orleans burial customs evolve as people of different tongues and colors reach the city, surviving floods, fires, war, political violence, civil rights struggles, and hurricanes. The film follows the French town’s evolution with a stunning recreation of African burial choreographies by the enslaved, honoring ancestral memory on a field called Congo Square. The resistance drama of the dancing carries across time, gathering force as as black men march as Mardi Gras Indians in one the film’s most powerful funeral sequence. As Africans’ dances merge with the funeral processions of European marching bands, the fusion of the ring and the line gives shape to jazz music, and an archtetype of the city’s diverse society.
When the documentary hits a violent turning point at a parade shooting, Deb Cotton and Michael White are plunged into a search for the city’s soul.
Deb Cotton, an African American and observant Jew, leaves “hard-hearted Hollywood” for New Orleans, and becomes a chronicler of the parading clubs spawned by 19th century burial societies. Her zeal for the city grows as a blogger for Gambit Weekly, with the handle “Big Red”. As Deb probes her adopted culture, with hand-held footage laced through the film, Dr. Michael White, a prolific clarinetist and Xavier University professor, intones “the widow’s wail,” a cry of lamentation in the funeral marches. He plays joyous peals for the soul’s cutting-loose as the band leaves the cemetery, followed by dancers in “the second line.” As White says: “For someone dealing with American racism, you can be transformed into another world that really sets you free." Risen in the ranks of brass bands, White, too, is on a journey of self-discovery, seeking clues on an ancestor who played at the dawn of jazz.
Funerals unfold as caravans of memory, shaping White’s quest and Cotton’s epiphanies. New Orleans burial customs evolve as people of different tongues and colors reach the city, surviving floods, fires, war, political violence, civil rights struggles, and hurricanes. The film follows the French town’s evolution with a stunning recreation of African burial choreographies by the enslaved, honoring ancestral memory on a field called Congo Square. The resistance drama of the dancing carries across time, gathering force as as black men march as Mardi Gras Indians in one the film’s most powerful funeral sequence. As Africans’ dances merge with the funeral processions of European marching bands, the fusion of the ring and the line gives shape to jazz music, and an archtetype of the city’s diverse society.
When the documentary hits a violent turning point at a parade shooting, Deb Cotton and Michael White are plunged into a search for the city’s soul.