(Updated) Spirit Winner The Order Of Myths on NPT Tuesday Night

Update 2/24/09 9:30 p.m.: As a result of President Obama’s Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, THE ORDER OF MYTHS did not air at 9:00 p.m. tonight. We are sorry for the inconvenience. There are, however, two upcoming broadcasts, on Thursday, February 26 at 2:00 a.m. on NPT, and 9:00 a.m. on NPT 2 (Channel 8.2 with a digital over-the-air tuner or Comcast Channel 241). Set your DVRs!

THE ORDER OF MYTHS, which comes to NPT via Independent Lens on Tuesday, February 24 at 9:00 p.m., earned director Margaret Brown the LACOSTE Truer Than Fiction Award at this past weekend’s 2009 Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California. The film explores America’s oldest Mardi Gras, which is celebrated each year in Mobile, Alabama, and where events remain segregated between white and black residents.

The Spirit Awards honors films made by filmmakers who embody independence and who dare to challenge the status quo. The LACOSTE Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant attention. The award is accompanied by a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by LACOSTE.

THE ORDER OF MYTHS was one of Nashville Scene managing editor and film critic Jim Ridley’s favorite documentaries of the year, even prompting a rare “Do Not Miss This Movie” plea on the Scene’s Pith in the Wind blog in October when the film screened at the Belcourt.

“Consider this a Paul Revere message getting the word out about a movie you shouldn’t miss,” wrote Ridley on the blog. “It’s a documentary playing for the next few days at the Belcourt called The Order of Myths—one of those extraordinary docs, like The King of Kong or Hands on a Hardbody, where the scope, detail and characters make contemporary fiction filmmaking seem pale and wan by comparison. It may be one of the best films ever made about the paradoxes and complexities of the postwar South.”