With unparalleled access to America’s most popular plantation houses, archaeologist, Lauren Cudmore, goes on a journey to uncover why millions of tourists continue to flock to these sites, while conveniently forgetting their horrific past.
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Vacation Plantation
A film by Alex Bezeau
Today, in the American South, there are as many historic plantation sites open to the public as there are Krispy Kreme locations across the United States. These sites indulging tourists’ fantasies, rather than the horrific realities of the past. Vacation Plantation grants unparalleled access to the modern American plantation tourism industry – from the priorities of today’s plantation owners, to the political balancing act of State representatives, to the descendants of the enslaved fighting for change. Archaeologist, Lauren Cudmore, goes on a journey to understand why millions of tourists continue to vacation at these sites of historic trauma.
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Reviews
The Experts
Jo Banner
Co-Founder of The Descendants Project
“The Descendants Project is committed to the intergenerational healing and flourishing of the Black descendant community in the Louisiana river parishes. The lands of the river parishes hold the intersecting histories of enslavement, settler colonialism, and environmental degradation.”
Joseph McGill
Founder of The Slave Dwelling Project & Co-Author of Sleeping with the Ancestors
“The Slave Dwelling Project envisions a future in which the hearts and minds of Americans acknowledge a more truthful and inclusive narrative of the history of the nation that honors the contributions of all our people, is embedded and preserved in the buildings and artifacts of people of African heritage, and inspires all Americans to acknowledge their Ancestors.”
Dr. Ashley Rogers
Executive Director of Whitney Plantation
“Whitney Plantation is a non-profit museum dedicated to the history of slavery, situated on a historical sugar, indigo and rice plantation which operated from 1752-1975. The museum preserves over a dozen historical structures, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Whitney Plantation Historic District.”
Dr. Felice Knight
Director of Education at the International African American Museum
“The International African American Museum tells the unvarnished stories of the African American experience across generations, the trauma and triumph that gave rise to a resilient people.”
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The team
Alex Bezeau
After completing a Master of Arts in international relations and spending more than a decade in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence, the past five years have been something of an exciting new journey for Alex. Through documentary filmmaking, he has been exploring the concepts of memory and society’s collective erasure when it comes to uncomfortable truths in our history (most recently, with his 2024 feature film, Vacation Plantation). This edgy history documentary having a clear purpose of speaking truth to power in a world that has seemingly forgotten the power that comes from understanding the past.
Lauren Cudmore
As an archaeologist, with a Master of Arts in anthropology, Lauren has spent much of her professional career within a national museum in research and analysis capacities, but has always been drawn to public history, connecting people to the world around them through history. A passion that only grew five years ago when she began hosting the web series, Blue Lobster Tales, and through the production of – Vacation Plantation. These projects unlocking in her a new-found love for producing films.
Updates
Richard Propes- "Vacation Plantation becomes particularly enlightening through the presence of Jo Banner and Joseph McGill. This is particularly true as the film begins to wind down, and these two have established themselves as well-informed, well-reasoned human beings who are acutely aware that racism is alive and well in America (NOTE: as a person with lifelong disability, I'd personally argue that slavery is alive in the United States to this day just expressed differently)."
https://theindependentcritic.com/vacation_plantation
UK Film Review!
"The film presents a perfect irony in the shape of a tourist plantation."
"The documentary excellently highlights the issues posed by plantations being used as tourist attractions and the way this contributes to a whitewashed version of history, honouring a traumatic past. These plantations and their twisted history, through ignorance towards the black community, made these landmarks into spaces characterised by whiteness and ‘southern hospitality’ rather than the racial violence which built them."
Film Threat just reviewed Vacation Plantation!
"Vacation Plantation is required viewing. Whether you consider it to be 'woke' White guilt, or you are aware of the persistent failings of racial justice in the U.S., this film provides critical context of the origin of Southern wealth and the traumatic lives of enslaved people on the plantations."
10/10!
Head over to https://filmthreat.com/reviews/vacation-plantation-review/ for the full review!
Vacation Plantation available now on Apple TV! Watch today!
https://tv.apple.com/ca/movie/vacation-plantation
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