Member of the Club with Phoebe Ferguson

Filmmaker: Phoebe Ferguson
Film: Member of the Club: A New Orleans Cinderella Story
Tour Dates: February 17-27, 2009

About the filmmaker | About the film | Tour Dates & Locations | Member of the Club web site

About the filmmaker:

A native of New Orleans and a 1978 Mardi Gras debutante, Phoebe Ferguson currently resides in New Orleans where she produces and directs documentary projects. With a BA from the Art Center College of Design, Ferguson worked for 20 years as a professional photographer in New York, first in documentary journalism and then in advertising, where she ran a commercial studio for 15 years, shooting for major ad agencies around the country. In 2000, she made a short documentary film which sparked a career change. In 2003, she completed an MA in film at NYU, studying with Marco Williams and George Stoney.  “Member of the Club” is her first feature film.

About the film:

"Member of the Club" tells the story of a debutante, Marisa Arianne Mitchell, who has been groomed to be a New Orleans Mardi Gras Queen since she was an infant. Surrounded by her mother, Adrienne Mitchell, and her grandmother, Lorraine Petit, Marisa is prepared to ascend to royal status and gain her crown as Queen. Using an observational, cinema verité approach, the film follows the Mitchell family through the 2003-2004 debutante season. We watch as the matriarchs and the debutante experience a flurry of interviews, dress fittings, rehearsals, academic challenges and ball practices. Each event brings with it excitement and anxiety. Ferguson portrays these three vibrant women intimately, witnessing their hopes, struggles and determination as they try to make this crowning dream a reality. This engaging documentary is a dramatic coming-of-age story that explores black social clubs of the South, as well as issues of race, class and the powerful desire of an American family to belong.

Tour Dates & Locations: