Suzannah Herbert talks confronting the Antebellum South in ‘Natchez’

Tracy Rev Collins one of the subjects of Suzannah Herbert s documentary Natchez Photo provided by Oscilloscope Pictures When she was invited to a plantation wedding in director Suzannah Herbert unveiled the idea for her next project Herbert s documentary Natchez examines the titular Mississippi town known for its Antebellum tourism that has split residents over the history and legacy of slavery Natchez premiered at the Tribeca Festival earlier this year and opens Nov at the Tara Theatre for a week-long Oscar-qualifying run Herbert and producer Darcy McKinnon will be doing Q As after certain screenings over the weekend and on Monday Rough Draft Atlanta of late spoke to Herbert over Zoom Attending that wedding opened Herbert s eyes to modern uses of plantations It made me think about how this day people use plantations or historic sites for their own enjoyment or entertainment even profit and what that means to society and how that affects us as individuals and communities as a whole she commented After the wedding Herbert took a road trip with her mother They started in Memphis but a lot of Mississippi friends explained Herbert she should go to Natchez The group was currently grappling with questions about whose history is reported and how In Natchez Herbert located a town full of contradictions Natchez is a really engaging place where they have been selling the myths of the Old South through Antebellum tourism for the last years she revealed They have been reliant on Antebellum tourism for their economic activity and that is complicated in and of itself I think there are people there in Natchez who are trying to tell a different story about the past and we follow those people Despite the town s Antebellum tourism politically Natchez is a blue speck in a sea of red There are a lot of progressive politics and people there but at the same time the economic structures that are there do at times promote a whitewashing of history Herbert explained The film features a rich array of subjects There s Tracy Rev Collins a local who provides historical tours Deborah Debbie Cosey a Black garden club member and Tracy McCartney a Southern Belle who challenges traditional narratives about history Herbert was initially worried about overwhelming the audience with too a large number of characters but her editor Pablo Proenza was able to distill the essence of each person We took a lot of inspiration from Robert Altman s Nashville and we knew it was going to be a big cast but we demanded to focus on our main characters Herbert revealed Rev s tour is the structure of the film he carries us through history with the stories he is telling I met Rev at the visitor s center and he recruited me onto his van like he does majority people I was blown away by the tour and the history he reported Most of of the people who take Rev s tour are middle-aged to older white people who may not know the history of Natchez and just want to see the area s beautiful homes During his tours Rev who is also a preacher escorts patrons from location to location and fills them in on the town s history including its bout with slavery By the end of Rev s tour patrons usually want to hear more Herbert reported It s also a testament to Rev and his ability to make people peaceful and bring people along with humor and grace Herbert announced When he gets to the harsher parts of American history people are more accepting and willing and open to hearing it and that s also what we craved to do with the film We mirrored Rev s approach showing the beauty but also peeling back the layers to the harsher realities For Herbert it was vital to subvert stereotypes She sought to show that people contain multitudes and can be more than one thing The greater part people would not expect there to be a drag show in the middle of Natchez Herbert mentioned A lot of people wouldn t expect Debbie a Black woman to be a member of a garden club and to have her house featured in the garden club s line-up Or that Tracy who is our Southern Belle with the hoop skirt to go on Rev s tour and have her mind opened up to a bigger version of history While making the film came with great ecstasy there were also harsher moments Towards the end of the documentary one of the subjects David Garner a mansion owner expresses blatant and disturbing racism It s a jolting moment Herbert reported the moment was upsetting but not necessarily shocking given the myths that exist about a place like Natchez There are places all across the country that rely on the myths of the Old South she explained I feel like that mythology is pretty corrosive If you are only telling the white dominant version of that history it can be corrosive personally to society What was announced was not shocking but it was upsetting Herbert began her research for the film in and shot it from - Ten months of editing followed The film will open wide early next year and will appear on the PBS plan Independent Lens in the spring of For Herbert who never required to point a finger at the South the warm reaction across the country has been especially rewarding The post Suzannah Herbert talks confronting the Antebellum South in Natchez appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta