Natchez (dir. Suzannah Herbert)
By: Adam Freed
It's no secret that some Americans aren’t ready to let go of the reverential nature with which they perceive the Antebellum South. In the small town of Natchez, Mississippi, once the richest city in America through the early and middle 19th century, a battle rages over which version of history is best for the modern survival of the city. The once thriving economic superpower fueled the Southern economy as it acted as the hub for cotton, and human labor, in the form of slavery. Suzannah Herbert’s Tribeca Film Festival award winning documentary Natchez, explores the painful tug-o-war that is occurring within Natchez’s tourist and hospitality community as the city boasts its impeccably preserved Antebellum homesteads that overshadow the former slave dwelling that still unassumingly adorn the city’s landscape. Great documentary filmmaking is an exercise in showing an audience as complete a picture as possible and allowing for personal conclusions to slowly manifest themselves. In this pursuit, Suzannah Herbert allows her film to frontload the preserved beauty of the delta estates to offer one half of the glamorous and pristine image of Mississippi’s economic past. One cannot help in initially taking this bait while entertaining the sneaking intuition that just beyond the garden walls, the something is not what it appears.
The strength of Natchez is its reliance on community members to tell the story of their city, both past and present, in pursuit of reconciliation. This includes Mayor Daniel Gibson who openly refers to his city’s “dark past” as a framework for moving forward with a sense of shared togetherness. Although over 60% of Natchez’s residents are African American, there remains a skewed socioeconomic structure in favor of the few families who own the giant tourist homes. One of the prominent voices that Natchez uses to provide perspective is Tracy “Rev” Collins, a local minister who owns and operates Rev’s Country Tours, an educational historical tour that drives its patrons away from the allure of Southern Belle culture and into the realities of the slave trade and the generational centuries of poverty and destruction that it has caused. It becomes apparent upon meeting Collins that he is a man that, even in the 21st century, bears the weight of his ancestral pain. The film captures numerous interactions with townsfolk and tour patrons that treat Collins’ desire to share his historical intellect as an affront to the preservation of the city's facade.
The deeply rooted pain with which the existence of generations of families have been erased in the name of a bygone Southern era is haunting, but not as haunting as the preservation of the beliefs of race-based superiority to which a few of the film’s subjects still clearly adhere. Natchez is the fascinating story of a ghostlike city that in an attempt to preserve its future, clutches with both hands its multifaceted past. On one hand the city must maintain the tourism dollars that its plantation homesteads draw, while on the other hand reconcile the bloodsoaked violence and racism that shaped the existence of a majority of the small city’s residents. There is no simple conclusion to a story of this complexity, which is why Suzannah Herbert’s ability to articulate its intricacies with such grace and understanding is laudable.
Target Score 9/10 - Outlining the deeply divided nature with which America’s Antebellum South is remembered, Natchez is a documentary that elevates far beyond being interesting, Suzannah Herbert’s film is essential.
Natchez is included in Movie Archer's coverage of the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.