The award-winning documentary Natchez, which explores the Mississippi town’s reliance on romanticized antebellum tourism, will be screened as part of the Points North Presents series at the Strand Theatre on Thursday, May 28, at 7 p.m. 

Once home to more millionaires per capita than any other city in America, Natchez, Mississippi, now survives on a unique and problematic cottage industry: antebellum tourism. 

The film embeds itself within the town’s social fabric, following a cast of residents: from the charismatic Mayor Dan Gibson, who attempts to bridge the city’s racial divide, to Tracy, a “Southern belle” who proudly preserves the pageantry of the Old South, and Tracy “Rev” Collins, a Black preacher who leads unsparing “truth tours” to correct the sanitized white-washed narrative. 

"Through gauzy, cinematic cinematography, director Suzannah Herbert reveals a community struggling to maintain its economic lifeblood—the romanticized myth of the plantation—while facing an inevitable reckoning with the descendants of the enslaved people who built that very wealth," said a Strand Theatre news release.

The film culminates in a powerful exploration of “historical grammar,” asking if a town can ever truly move forward while its identity is so deeply tethered to a troubling fantasy. 

This award-winning documentary will be followed by a community conversation hosted by Meadow Dibble, of Atlantic Black Box, and a standing invitation for post-screening conversation and drinks at Rockland’s Lemon Bar.                                                               

Tickets for this screening are $12/Adults, $10/Strand Members, Seniors, and Students, and are available in advance at the Strand Theatre website, or at the door. More information is available at RocklandStrand.com or by calling 594-0070.

The Strand Theatre is located at 345 Main Street, Rockland.

Points North Presents is a monthly screening series that extends the spirit of the Camden International Film Festival throughout the year. In collaboration with the Strand Theatre, the series will bring some of the world’s most exciting and thought-provoking documentary films and filmmakers to the Midcoast Maine community.