The city of Natchez, Mississippi, is grappling with its complex history as a new documentary sheds light on the town’s antebellum tourism industry. The film, titled “Natchez,” won the award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Director Suzannah Herbert spent extensive time in Natchez, capturing the stories of residents who represent different aspects of life in the city.
The film follows a white woman who upholds the southern belle tradition, a Black Mississippian offering a more robust picture of Natchez, and David Garner, a neo-Confederate maintaining a mansion with his husband. Natchez has long profited from its Confederate-glory tourism, with hoop-skirted docents presenting a whitewashed version of history to visitors. However, this declining industry is now seeing fewer supporters, challenging the town’s economy but empowering its Black residents and those advocating for a reckoning with the past.
Natchez native and filmmaker Timothy Givens, who saw the documentary at its Tribeca debut, said, “As a filmmaker, I was impressed by the quality of the work. However, this latest film looks at Natchez history through a specific lens.
Grappling with Natchez’s complex history
I respect their efforts to bring those conversations to the forefront, but there is more to Natchez’s history than the film covers.”
Tammy and Wes Pack, part-time Natchez residents, flew to New York to see the film. They felt that the audience could distinguish between those whose behavior was blatantly racist or insensitive and the majority of well-intended, kind residents of Natchez. Kathleen Bond, superintendent of the Natchez National Historical Park, said, “It’s one person’s vision.
It’s not a comprehensive look at the town. As a portrait of the town, it comes off as a complicated place, but so are the people who come to Natchez. I hope people will see it with an open mind.”
Herbert plans to show the film in Natchez sometime in July or August.
She said, “We hope this film resonates across the country and helps people better understand one another. Natchezians are doing the incredibly hard work of grappling with our country’s difficult past on a daily basis, and the film aims to honor and uplift that work.”
“Natchez” explores the contradictions of a city where formerly enslaved African Americans thrived during Reconstruction, yet where memorializing the slave market faces opposition from primarily white residents. The film raises the central question of how a city can move forward without fully acknowledging its past, a question that applies not only to Natchez but to America as a whole.
