Film Forum

WINNER, BEST DOCUMENTARY, 2025 TRIBECA FILM 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.

2025     86 MIN.     USA     OSCILLOSCOPE LABORATORIES

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Reviews

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

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