Natchez is a provocative, eye-opening and well-shot documentary about Natchez, a city in Mississippi with antebellum houses. The harsh reality is that slaves actually built those houses, but the city's white residents choose to omit that part of their city's history. Its black residents refuse to omit it though, including Deborah Cosey, the first black member of the city's Pilgrimage Garden Club. Director Suzannah Herbert opts for a laissez faire approach by merely showing what the residents of Natchez say (or don't say) about its history without analyzing what they're saying or picking a side, so this is a fair and balanced documentary. It's also somewhat disturbing and enraging that a tragic part of history can be even considered to be whitewashed by adults who should know better. So, in a way, Natchez is about the importance of truth and, above all, democracy, in a country with a very dysfunctional democracy. At a running time of 1 hour and 26 minutes, Natchez opens at Film Forum via Oscilloscope Laboratories.