Film Forum

WINNER, BEST DOCUMENTARY, 2025 TRIBECA FESTIVAL

Natchez, Mississippi: a town of 15,000 that, for generations, has drawn tourists to its immaculately restored antebellum mansions, some hosted by hoop-skirted white matriarchs, for an experience dubbed “Pilgrimage.” As interest declines in and questions arise about showcasing these regal estates with tall tales of the “Old South,” Natchez faces a reckoning—with a romanticized, sanitized historical narrative and the debt it owes to the descendants of slaves. Directed by Suzannah Herbert—a Memphis-born documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on the American South—NATCHEZ follows owners of historic plantations, local activists and politicians, and both white and African American tour guides as they tell their ever-more conflicting versions of the town's past, and of American history.

Presented with support from The Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries and The Endowed Fund for Emerging Filmmakers

2025     86 MIN.     USA     OSCILLOSCOPE LABORATORIES

Reviews

“Stunning... a wide-ranging mosaic of cinematic portraiture... teems with notable characters, spanning a range from righteous to indifferent to ignoble, who excel at speaking their minds and expressing their emotions... Herbert may have preserved more history than she ever expected.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“A piercing portrait of a Mississippi town’s Antebellum tourism industry.”
– Ross McIndoe, Slant

“By turns cheeky and disturbing, blunt and nuanced, Suzannah Herbert’s excellent documentary NATCHEZ offers its own guided tour of a memory-challenged community (population: 14,000) struggling to reconcile its exquisite, carefully scrubbed façade with the inconvenient truths some would like to see better represented in the narrative.”
– Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“A real jaw-dropper.”
– Peter Sobcynski, RogerEbert.com

“One of the great documentaries of the 21st century—and the 19th century as well.”
– Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest