Documentary ‘Natchez’ Probes Hard Truths Behind the Idealized South Presented to Tourists

Halfway through the documentary “Natchez,” a middle-aged white woman declares that when she visits the eponymous Mississippi city, she steps out of modern America and goes back to a “lovely” world where she can “pick and choose” her thoughts and preoccupations.The world and past she’s referring to is the antebellum South, where stately manners were enjoyed, great wealth was generated, and impressive houses were built. The issue with the woman’s time-traveling dream, of course, lies in the fact that black slaves were not afforded those same social graces and that the town’s affluence and beauty were built on the backs of their labor.“Natchez” the documentary chronicles the city’s lucrative tourism business in transition. Director Suzannah Herbert, a Southerner, shows how tours of plantation homes, highlighting old-fashioned luxury and customs, clash with what we know of history, and especially with the national discussion on racism and social justice of the last several years. Absorbing and attentive to revealing moments, the film confirms a famous phrase from another Southerner — William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”Ms. Herbert begins her feature at a function of the Natchez Garden Club, whose antecedent socialite members saved many of the houses from collapse after the Great Depression and a boll weevil infestation devastated the cotton industry. A preservation society and tour agency, the club leverages the mystique and fascination associated with the old South for its lucrative business, which the city’s economy depends on. And yet Natchez is a strong Democratic city in a sea of red; the irony of a liberal town capitalizing on historical whitewashing is just one of the doc’s many incisive observations.Soon, we’re introduced to several individuals who benefit from this tourism: a black pastor and tour guide nicknamed Rev who takes visitors around in his van; Tracy McCartney, a pretty white resident of the town who works as a hostess at one of the manors; Deborah Cosey, an older black woman who bought one of the dilapidated residences only to realize it once housed slaves; and David Gardner, a white aging gay man from an old Mississippian family. These four and others serve as compelling representatives of the knotty issues involved in reviving the past for profit, whether as entertainment or edification. Tracy “Rev” Collins in the documentary ’Natchez.’ Via Noah Collier and Oscilloscope Laboratories Rev is a particularly engaging subject. An informed, affable personality, he offers an alternative to other tours, bringing tourists to places like Forks in the Road, where the Deep South’s second largest slave market was located and to which many Africans were forced to walk in chains for hundreds of miles. Now a national historic park, the site sits across the street from a slave trading company’s former location, currently occupied by a muffler shop whose white owner declares that if he lived back then, he “wouldn’t have done it.”What “it” stands for is at the heart of the documentary, for he might have meant slavery and racism but what of the more complex concept of systemic racism, such as benefiting from Jim Crow laws passed in the late 19th century? Yet as the film records, even slavery itself goes ignored on many tours. A couple of white owners discuss how they refrain from broaching the subject due to the lack of documentation on their home’s slave laborers, and this partly explains the problem and proves the larger point of historical erasure.Astutely, Ms. Herbert is also cognizant of the difficulty in keeping up with politically correct language, and in a memorable, semi-comical scene, a tour guide blunders through a recitation on how the donning of Confederate clothing is no longer seen as acceptable at a Garden Club event in which a king and queen are crowned. While Civil War military garb is frowned upon, “Southern Belle” hoop-skirted gowns are a common sight, with the director and cinematographer Noah Collier even evoking the final shot of “Gone with the Wind” by framing a silhouetted Ms. McCartney in an antebellum dress against a reddened sky.Indeed, the film is filled with atmospheric and observational moments, such as a quick glimpse of a tour staffer hiding a modern folding chair behind a door as we simultaneously hear a guide describe how the former owner was good to his “people,” that is his chattel slaves. Another great shot sees two tourists in M&M’s t-shirts taking a photo with a man in a Confederate uniform, speaking to the idea of commodified cultural norms.Some viewers might fret over the staged quality of certain scenes, such as the “Gone with the Wind” vignette, and this viewer wished Ms. Herbert had done more than just mention the city’s recent black and openly gay mayor, Darryl Grennell. References to the Native American “Natchez” people who populated the area before European colonization would have also added to the film’s intersectional scope.Still, there’s no denying the documentary’s insights and the power of its final act, which captures a frank discussion about power and opportunity between Rev and white tourists, and the emotional toll exacted on Ms. Cosey in her efforts to keep memories of the enslaved alive. The director also craftily waits until the end to put blatant racism on display, leaving us with shocking reminders of enduring prejudice while exposing the ugliness that can be found behind so-called Southern charm and gentility.

Documentary ‘Natchez’ Probes Hard Truths Behind the Idealized South Presented to Tourists

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