Suzannah Herbert’s excellent new documentary, Natchez, captures the divided folks of Natchez, Mississippi, a town where many wish to preserve the history of the South. It is a town where some wish to teach honestly about the town’s slave history, while others try to hold onto the mythology of the Southern belles and brave Confederate soldiers. Natchez is a town where the meaning of the word “heritage” has been sullied and twisted to excuse turning a blind eye to racism, then and now.

In the 1800s, Natchez, Mississippi was home to the largest population of millionaires in the world. The cotton and slave trades were where the small town found its fortunes. Victorian-style mansions standing as a deceptive symbol of beauty filled the area’s plantations. That architectural pride was dampened by massive flooding that would destroy many of the buildings and homes in the town. On the plantations, the Boll Weevils would swarm on the land and destroy many of the crops. The town’s garden clubs would work to repair and/or rebuild the damaged houses. Lest we forget, almost every beautifully designed home had a slave quarters just around back. 

As the town birthed a historical society that created tour groups to teach the town’s history, Natchez shows how people come from all over the United States to visit the history of the 17 and 1800s. Natchez, MS, is one of the most popular of these types of attractions. 

In fairness, the houses are beautifully restored. The owners preserve the original architecture and inside decor of the time. During a tour, the guides wear the costumes of the time; hoop skirts, tuxedos, military dress, etc. One of the film’s subjects, Tracy McCartney, tells of how special she feels when donning her blue antebellum dress and she seems to love going out to the public, taking sundown strolls to make sure she is acknowledged.

Tracy seems harmless, if not a bit aloof in the scheme of things. Among the beauty of the surroundings and the elegance of the homes, there is a history that, Herbert shows us, cannot be (and should not) be avoided. One of the house owners and guides, David, hasn’t shaken the racism from his family tree. This is a man battling a debilitating disease that is taking his voice and, eventually, his body, yet he soldiers on to regale visitors with stories of the “glorious” South. Unfortunately, a moment captured by the director (where David and a few guests speak racist views openly and proudly) softens any sympathies one might have toward the ailing man. As the film’s most interesting character, Tracy Collins, observes, David is a Gay man in the South, so what does he need to be racist about?

Collins is a reverend (known as “Rev”), tour guide, town historian, and a man who is more than happy to crush any sugar-coating of Natchez’s history. He isn’t afraid to cut right to the chase when speaking to his tour groups. While he has a big personality and a contagious sense of humor, Collins tells it like it is and doesn’t suffer fools, especially the proprietor of a body shop who doesn’t care for Reverend Collins speaking the truth. 

Collins and another of the town’s residents, Deborah Cosey, are two of only a handful of people who stand up to those who would sweep the town’s real story under the rug. Cosey is a Black woman who owns the Concord Quarters Bed and Breakfast with her husband, Gregory. The couple bought the place due to its beauty, hoping to host weddings. Once Deborah learned of the mansion’s slave history, she pledged to bring the place back to life and honor the slaves who were forced to live there. 

While the town’s history is constantly explored and debated through the people who live there, the director and her cinematographer, Noah Collier, explore the town’s inviting beauty through great shots of fully restored riverboats, low-angle shots of chandeliers, closeups of fine china, and sweeping pans of Natchez’s beautiful greenery and the snow-like whites of its cotton fields. 

Herbert doesn’t present the town through rose-colored lenses. Natchez, Mississippi beams an enchanting gorgeousness. The land and its structures are undeniably alluring, all some residents ask is to recognize what happened in the town before it became what it is today. 

The awkwardness of the situation is perfectly captured by Herbert, who sees the humor in it as much as the pain and while it’s a stroke of genius to relay the history of the area so elegantly through tour guides eager to entertain as much as inform, it is also a shrewd move to keep an eye on Tracy, a trophy wife who relocated to Natchez and became enamored of the lifestyle, though the deterioration of her marriage threatens her high society status. Worthy of a film on her own as nearly any of the people in “Natchez” are, a single moment of her struggling to fit into a car in a giant hoop skirt is the kind of moment of cinematic slapstick that has kept audiences in stitches for time eternal, but couldn’t be any more potent a reflection of how being wedded to the past has gotten in the way of making progress.

One of the film’s most telling moments is when a character (well-off White woman in her 60s) states how being in the town and around its refurbished plantations brings her back to “a lovely place” and that she can “pick and choose what I think about.” What happened in the Antebellum South doesn’t have a Gone With the Wind sheen. It never did. Flippant is the wrong attitude. This moment is an unavoidable reflection of where America is today, regarding the teachings of its past.

Natchez isn’t a film that points fingers and the filmmakers don’t set out to shame their subjects. As ugly as some of the people within this revealing documentary can get, this isn’t an attack piece. Herbert allows three-dimensional portraits of her subjects. They are allowed to be who they are without judgement. The film has one clear mission; to show the dichotomy found in the residents of Natchez, Mississippi. In many ways, this divided community’s differences are bringing them closer than any of them could imagine. 

Every city and state in this land has an ugly story of how this country came to be. Today, America is being led by those who would seek to wipe away teachings of the atrocities of our past. Suzannah Herbert’s marvelous documentary sees the town of Natchez as a microcosm of today’s United States; a nation at war with itself. Through people like “Rev” Collins, Deborah Cosey, and a few more, Herbert shows us there may be a path to mutual understanding. Dialogue and community are the keys. 

If Natchez teaches us anything, it is the importance of preserving the beauty of any land while  acknowledging its true history. For too long, our schools have been burdened with teaching the sanitized lies of HIS-story.

It is time to get real.

Natchez premiered in Tribeca’s Documentary Competition and won Best Documentary Feature

Natchez

Directed by Suzannah Herbert

Executive Producers Sam Pollard, Cindy Meehl, Carrie Lozano, Lois Vossen, Ted Haddock, Jaqueline Glover, Mari Nakachi