Natchez (Natchez)

Suzannah Herbert

Natchez follows residents of a Mississippi town preparing for tourist season built on “Old South” nostalgia. Through guides, homeowners, and officials, the film reveals competing narratives: some highlight antebellum elegance, while others confront the realities of slavery and its legacy. As individuals like Rev, Tracy, David, and Debbie navigate personal and historical reckonings, tensions emerge over how the past should be told. Dependent on tourism yet divided over its meaning, Natchez becomes a microcosm of America’s struggle with historical memory, exposing how romanticized histories continue to shape present-day identities and racial divisions.

USA 2025, '86

DIRECTOR: Suzannah Herbert

SCENARIO: Suzannah Herbert, Pablo Proenza

CAMERA: Noah Collier

MONTAGE: Pablo Proenza

MUSIC: James Newberry

PRODUCERS: Suzannah Herbert, Darcy McKinnon

FESTIVALS & AWARDS:

LA Asian Pacific FF (2025): Special Jury Prize

Suzannah Herbert

Suzannah Herbert is a documentary director and editor from Memphis whose directing work focuses on the American South. Herbert directed and produced the twice Emmy-nominated film WRESTLE. Named one of the top 5 documentaries of 2019 by the National Board of Review, lauded as “superb” by the Los Angeles Times, and hailed as a New York Times Critic’s Pick, Wrestle was released theatrically by Oscilloscope and broadcast on PBS’s
Independent Lens. As an editor, she has collaborated on various Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga projects, music videos and award-winning films like 2022’s A Woman On the Outside (SXSW 2022, PBS’s America Reframed). Her second feature film, Natchez, premiering at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, was supported by ITVS, Catapult Film Fund, the Ford Foundation, Rooftop Films Fund, CIFF Points North Fellowship, Logan
Nonfiction Fellowship, Yaddo, True False Catapult Rough Cut Retreat and Film Independent.