Since The Birth of a Nation became the first Hollywood blockbuster in 1915, movies have struggled to reckon with the American South--as both a place and an idea, a reality and a romance, a lived experience and a bitter legacy. Nearly every major American filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter has worked on a film about the South, from Gone with the Wind to 12 Years a Slave, from Deliverance to Forrest Gump. In The...