Natchez (2025)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Filmmaker Suzannah Herbert takes a sharp look at the American South’s unreconciled history through a Mississippi town that mixes antebellum tourism with a community deeply divided over its past. With an unflinching lens, the film captures the debates, memories, and tensions that are building toward a reckoning.
- Actors:
- Kathleen Bond, Ser Clifford Boxley, Tracy Collins, Deborah Cosey, Dan Gibson, Tracy McCartney, Barney Schoby
- Directors:
- Suzannah Herbert
- Producers:
- Darcy McKinnon, Jacqueline Glover, Ted Haddock, Bill Harnisch, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Carrie Lozano, Cindy Meehl, Mari Nakachi, Samuel D. Pollard, Lois Vossen, Keri Archer Brown
- Writers:
- Suzannah Herbert, Pablo Proenza
- Aka:
- Den amerikanska söderns arv
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
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Reviews (1) of Natchez
Southern (Dis)comfort - Natchez review by griggs
Visiting New Orleans recently, I deliberately chose Whitney Plantation, where the tours focus on the people enslaved there. So Suzannah Herbert’s documentary hit a nerve.
Natchez, Mississippi, lives off its antebellum mansions, and the houses are gorgeous. The history sold inside them has been restored to within an inch of its life. The hoop skirts would be hilarious if the story underneath weren’t so grim.
Herbert lets people talk, and a few heritage enthusiasts make her argument for her. Tracy “Rev” Collins and Ser Clifford Boxley are terrific, dragging the conversation back to the people whose labour paid for the chandeliers. Debbie Cosey, the Pilgrimage Garden Club’s first Black member, runs a B&B in a former slave dwelling. Breakfast comes with the history the mansions skip.
The film wanders and leaves questions hanging, but Herbert also catches people questioning stories they’ve believed for years. After all the infuriating evasions, I found those moments surprisingly hopeful. I left wondering whether Natchez is finally ready to tell its whole story.