Stop by NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts to watch the documentary Wild Magnolias (2023, dir. Alexandra Kern), presented on loop 12–7 pm. At 12:30 and 6:00 pm, Kern and Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. will speak about the film during short, conversational talks.

Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

Program Schedule

12–7 pm | Film screening in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts (16 minutes, looped)

12:30 pm | Talk and Q&A with director Alexandra Kern and Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr.

6 pm | Talk and Q&A with director Alexandra Kern and Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr.

Film Synopsis

Corey, Alvon, and JaCorey, the teenage protégés of barber Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr., learn the virtues of a tradition in New Orleans that guides the youth community through mentorship, artistic expression, and cultural practice. This is a film about the process, what happens all the way up to the presentation of the suit, and how the practice is a one-of-a-kind creative and cultural outlet for the younger generation involved.

About the Speakers

Alexandra Kern is an award-winning filmmaker whose work explores how we inform the next generation in our complex cultures. Growing up in New Orleans has taught her how crucial culture and art are in shaping future generations and how the family extends outside the home. She has produced commercial and independent acclaimed projects for artists such as Dua Lipa and Lil Nas X. Her directorial debut, the short documentary Wild Magnolias, screened at multiple Oscar-qualifying film festivals across the country where it found a permanent stay in the historical archive at the New Orleans Jazz Museum as well as online at Short of the Week and Aeon Magazine. The film won best short documentary for 2024’s Best of NFMLA. Her next short documentary Stud Country is currently on its festival circuit, having screened at Tribeca Film Festival winning the Challenger Spirit award and winning the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Doc at Full Frame Film Festival making it Oscar-qualifying. The film is available online through the Los Angeles Times.

Bo Dollis Jr.’s entire life has been shaped and spurred by Black Masking Indian culture. He masked for the first time at the age of ten, though his parents, Big Queen Laurita Dollis and the late Bo Dollis Sr., Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias, wanted him to wait a few more years before he participated fully. Determined to mask, Bo Dollis Jr. managed to get his mother’s attention in that regard when he destroyed one of her beaded purses and started sewing on his own. No one could hold him back after that bold and decisive move, and the young Dollis took his first steps toward becoming a Big Chief. Bo Dollis Jr. took on the title of of Big Chief in 2006, and assumed leadership of the Wild Magnolias in 2012 at the behest of his father. Bo Dollis Jr. has masked and performed with the band throughout most of his life, in venues all over New Orleans including Tipitina’s and the House of Blues, and at multiple Jazz Fests. He and the band played the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as at the White House in 2011 for President Obama when Bo Dollis Sr., was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.