Cutting Loose

The city of New Orleans is known for its excesses, in the area of lively jazz music and spicy food, but also when it comes down to the city's crime rates. 'Cutting loose' is slang for 'going out of one's mind' and that is exactly what happens on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. On this day, the day before Ash Wednesday, everybody, rich or poor, white or black, dons a costume and is carried away by a 24-hour rave. Susan Todd and Andrew Young followed a number of revellers during their preparations for the feast, starting one month before the big day. We see a poor black man spending his last cents on cloth and beads for his huge costume of an Indian chief; rich Malise, who will make her debut as the queen of a prestigious soiree; homosexual Juan who will scatter the ashes - mixed with glitters - of his friend who died of Aids over the river; stripper Gio as the sex queen of the day, wielding an enormous dildo. They all have their own way of shaping their secret fantasies and for every one of them Mardi Gras is a brief escape from the daily grind.