Challenging Official Histories in "Natchez" and "Mr. Nobody Against Putin"

"known as the Concord Quarters. An unadorned brick building, it housed enslaved people and has a kitchen where many of them once worked. Cosey was formerly a guide at a historic inn in the town and was ordered to "stick to the script" when she insisted on mentioning the inn's slave quarters; today, as she says, "I wrote my own script.""

"Garner is gay and claims that "half" of the historic-home owners are gay men, the only people, he says, with "the money and the taste" to maintain the properties. Rev, who's been on Garner's tours, wonders whether Garner is merely "trying to portray a Southern aristocratic gentleman, how they would talk." He adds, "Maybe you can see if there's a real him or is that the real him?""

"White tourists describe visiting these sumptuous, old-fashioned properties as a way to "get away from current events," and the film's poised cinematography, by Noah Collier, captures the enveloping allure of these pristinely preserved grand dwellings. But current events are inextricable from the subject of "Natchez," perhaps all the more so in the months since the movie premièred, at the Tribeca Film Festival."

Charismatic guides animate tours of Natchez's antebellum homes, combining rhetorical charm, humor and warmth. Deborah Cosey, the first Black member of the Pilgrimage Garden Club and owner of the Concord Quarters, foregrounds enslaved people's lives. Cosey left a historic inn after being told to "stick to the script" and now says, "I wrote my own script." David Garner, an elderly white homeowner and guide, uses racial slurs on tours and claims preservation is sustained by gay men with "the money and the taste." White tourists seek to "get away from current events" by visiting pristinely preserved grand dwellings while federal ownership and contemporary politics complicate site meanings.

Read at The New Yorker