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Filmmakers Behind PBS' Natchez Documentary Ask: Should Antebellum Tourism Still Exist?

CineMovie

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Now streaming on PBS’s Independent Lens, Natchez takes a thoughtful and often uncomfortable look at how Natchez continues to market the romance of the Antebellum South while wrestling with the realities of slavery and its lasting impact. What happens when tourism meets America’s darkest history?

In our interview, director Suzannah Herbert and producer Darcy McKinnon explain that the documentary goes beyond debates over historic home tours and Southern nostalgia. Instead, they want Natchez to become a portrait of a town through the people who live there and the stories they choose to preserve, challenge, or reclaim.

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15 Comments

@siangibby5771 4 months ago

The documentary was stupendous. Congratulations to the filmmakers. I would love my Italian historian friend to be able to see it, but in Italy they can't see our YouTube channel. I will actively look for a means of sharing it abroad, because I do think people from other countries all around the world would be interested to see some Americans, like you two filmmakers, shining a light on the evolution of our national interaction with the legacy of slavery. Congratulations again on the film, and thank you.

@Jennifer-rv9sb 4 months ago

This is awesome! I haven’t seen anybody else interview the director, and this documentary really opened my eyes. I really like what the other woman said about how tourism is a form of activism, and I totally 100% agree with her with that!!! I never thought I would want to go to Mississippi before watching this film, but now I wanna go to support Rev and his tour and Ms Debra

@GinaGreenlee 3 months ago (edited)

"Tourism as a form of activism," says the producer. That resonates. And congrats to the filmmakers. I just finished watching Natchez. Excellent. I particularly loved that you didn't use voiceover or archival footage, you just let people speak. Lots of folks telling on themselves in many ways.

@tammybagwell1507 3 months ago

The history is not hidden it is documented

@celieboo 2 months ago

Amazing documentary!

@Alaskan-Armadillo 4 months ago

I definitely have my critiques of this documentary but it's definitely a strong step forward! Glad to see independent documentaries!

@theylied1776 3 months ago (edited)

First, I'm from the south, and I'm a black male from Tennessee.

This documentary clearly shows that there's always going to be an "other". That's how hate works.

They most laughable character was the southern Queen. He was the most racist individual in this documentary, but he acts oblivious to the Christian Nationalists that hate him.

Whenever the focus was on him, I just kept laughing. He's defending and preserving a rose-colored version of the antebellum South that would have tarred and feathered him, and run him out of town on a rail.

My grandmother would have looked at him and just giving a little giggle and said bless your heart

@jonathansmith62 2 months ago

We all should stop touring the great pyramids as well, after all these structures were built on the back of slaves

@deellaboe437 4 months ago

Amazing film,

@juliazalewski3023 4 months ago

It’s long past time for the USA to tell its true history. This documentary should be required viewing for everyone

@kevinlee149 3 months ago

"Natchez" should be paired with 2008's "The Order of Myths" not only for the parallels within them but also to show how glacial the pace of change is in the former Confederacy.

@GreatGooglieWooglie 3 months ago

They should have black historians give tours to ALL properties there

@dawnanderson5040 3 months ago

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's wedding

@L.Spencer 3 months ago

I didn't remember that Mansfield Park by Jane Austen included critique of slavery, how it was sustaining their elite lifestyle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1iS8A-slJA

@kalahall5170 4 months ago (edited)

All of tourism is exploitative. It only for colonists who continue to believe they should be treated like kings/ queens from the lands they are visiting without giving respect to the people, lands, and cultures whose homes they are on.