Filmmaker Suzannah Herbert’s latest film centers on a small town wrestling with some very big issues.
“Natchez” is set to run at Atlanta’s Tara Theatre starting this Friday, November 7th, with filmmaker Q&A sessions featuring Herbert and producer Darcy McKinnon following select screenings on Friday through Monday, November 10th.
The film highlights the small town of Natchez, Mississippi, a tourist destination which has painted a rosy portrait of life in the Antebellum South for decades.
“I first started thinking about it because I was invited to a wedding on a plantation. And I wanted to explore in a film how people today use historic sites for their own enjoyment and entertainment and profit,” says Herbert. “And so I went on a little road trip with my mother. We started in Memphis, and we went throughout the Delta, and we ended up in Natchez because all of our friends in Mississippi told us to go to Natchez.”
Today, the town’s residents are struggling with how to tell the honest story of a town built on slavery. It’s a challenging conversation that’s caught in startling detail by Herbert’s camera.
“It was painful,” says the director of filming scenes which include racial slurs. “And to watch back those moments still brings a lot of pain to me. But I knew that I needed to maintain the distance in order to capture the reality. And in order to do that, I had to remove my ego, my ideals, and be the documentarian that captures the moment.”
For showtimes and ticket information, click over to the Tara Theatre website here.
