1 00:00:01,034 --> 00:00:02,569 - Welcome to Independent Lens. 2 00:00:02,636 --> 00:00:06,173 I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut. 3 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:07,908 Tonight, we bring you a film 4 00:00:07,975 --> 00:00:10,811 one critic calls a mesmerizing nightmare. 5 00:00:10,878 --> 00:00:13,380 Natchez is a city in the state of Mississippi 6 00:00:13,447 --> 00:00:17,351 on the Mississippi River with a population of 14,000 people 7 00:00:17,417 --> 00:00:19,486 that has an unreconciled past 8 00:00:19,553 --> 00:00:22,155 regarding the Civil War and slavery. 9 00:00:22,222 --> 00:00:25,626 Tonight's film is appropriately titled Natchez. 10 00:00:25,692 --> 00:00:27,194 The people of Natchez, Mississippi 11 00:00:27,261 --> 00:00:28,462 have always been divided 12 00:00:28,529 --> 00:00:30,931 over the city's controversial history. 13 00:00:30,998 --> 00:00:33,467 The days of slavery may be in the past, 14 00:00:33,534 --> 00:00:36,003 but the town's residents are divided over the fact 15 00:00:36,069 --> 00:00:39,773 that the city still profits from its racist history. 16 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,110 In Natchez, tourists can explore plantation mansions 17 00:00:43,177 --> 00:00:45,012 and pay to do so. 18 00:00:45,078 --> 00:00:46,580 These tours are big business, 19 00:00:46,647 --> 00:00:49,983 and the city's economy has come to rely on the money. 20 00:00:50,050 --> 00:00:52,819 Those who give the tours lean into the plantation days, 21 00:00:52,886 --> 00:00:55,989 celebrating the ostentatious glamour that accompanied, 22 00:00:56,056 --> 00:00:57,424 but cannot erase the fact 23 00:00:57,491 --> 00:01:00,227 that the same people that lived in these estates 24 00:01:00,294 --> 00:01:03,397 owned other human beings like property. 25 00:01:03,463 --> 00:01:06,700 Director Suzannah Herbert was inspired to make this film 26 00:01:06,767 --> 00:01:11,538 after attending a wedding on a plantation in the town in 2017. 27 00:01:11,605 --> 00:01:13,173 She was surprised and intrigued 28 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:16,810 with the town's antebellum history and plantation tourism. 29 00:01:16,877 --> 00:01:20,080 She struggled with the idea that such a joyous occasion 30 00:01:20,147 --> 00:01:21,615 took place in a setting 31 00:01:21,682 --> 00:01:24,651 so synonymous with pain and suffering. 32 00:01:24,718 --> 00:01:26,119 In the film, Herbert explains 33 00:01:26,186 --> 00:01:28,822 that most of the visitors are middle-class whites 34 00:01:28,889 --> 00:01:32,960 who are called pilgrims, and the tours are called pilgrimages. 35 00:01:33,026 --> 00:01:34,461 Shocking the director even more 36 00:01:34,528 --> 00:01:36,196 were that the tour guides were dressed 37 00:01:36,263 --> 00:01:38,432 in plantation owner attire, 38 00:01:38,498 --> 00:01:42,636 seemingly clueless to the racist undertones of the wardrobe. 39 00:01:42,703 --> 00:01:45,873 Either way, Herbert felt this was something to be explored, 40 00:01:45,939 --> 00:01:48,976 so she set out to understand the disconnect. 41 00:01:49,042 --> 00:01:51,111 She found the pilgrimages intriguing 42 00:01:51,178 --> 00:01:53,881 in that she wondered if tourists knew they were hearing 43 00:01:53,947 --> 00:01:56,884 a very narrow or one-sided rendition of history, 44 00:01:56,950 --> 00:01:58,485 and if it bothered them. 45 00:01:58,552 --> 00:01:59,786 With this documentary, 46 00:01:59,853 --> 00:02:03,790 she wanted to give an equal voice to voices unheard. 47 00:02:03,857 --> 00:02:05,792 The award-winning Herbert's directing process 48 00:02:05,859 --> 00:02:08,829 goes well beyond just pointing the camera and shooting. 49 00:02:08,896 --> 00:02:11,832 Herbert spent 75 days in and around Natchez, 50 00:02:11,899 --> 00:02:13,800 immersing herself in the community 51 00:02:13,867 --> 00:02:16,970 to help her fully understand sensibilities. 52 00:02:17,037 --> 00:02:18,438 She said getting to know people 53 00:02:18,505 --> 00:02:21,775 helped her get their stories on camera without much hesitation 54 00:02:21,842 --> 00:02:24,611 because she had become a familiar face. 55 00:02:24,678 --> 00:02:26,146 In the case of the homeowners, 56 00:02:26,213 --> 00:02:28,515 they were used to giving tours and talking, 57 00:02:28,582 --> 00:02:32,152 so they really opened up once the cameras started rolling. 58 00:02:32,219 --> 00:02:34,588 This is her second feature-length documentary, 59 00:02:34,655 --> 00:02:37,991 and she's doing something right, as Natchez won best documentary 60 00:02:38,058 --> 00:02:40,561 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, 61 00:02:40,627 --> 00:02:41,995 and took home the same prize 62 00:02:42,062 --> 00:02:45,866 at the Palm Springs and Hamptons International Film Festivals. 63 00:02:45,933 --> 00:02:49,036 At one point in the film, the town's mayor declares, 64 00:02:49,102 --> 00:02:53,040 "I appreciate and love all our history, even the bad," 65 00:02:53,106 --> 00:02:57,277 adding that he wants everyone to come together in love. 66 00:02:57,344 --> 00:02:58,846 This kind of contradictory statement 67 00:02:58,912 --> 00:03:02,850 is exactly why Suzannah Herbert had to make this movie. 68 00:03:02,916 --> 00:03:04,318 Enjoy Natchez. 69 00:03:04,384 --> 00:03:10,290 It starts now on PBS Wisconsin, your home for independent film.