There's a Civil War mockumentary coming to an art house new you: "CSA: Confederate States of America" was written and directed by Kevin Willmott, and "looks at an America in which the South won the Civil War -- or rather, the War of Northern Aggression."

It has just played Sundance.

The film includes "a Home Shopping Network-type program that specializes in marketing slaves. It's hosted by two chipper white women trying to peddle a black couple and their cute 'litter of pickaninnies.' And there's a painfully funny commercial for The Shackle -- a device similar to the vehicular LoJack but used for tracking slaves. ('Made of a lightweight aluminum alloy so it won't weigh your Tom down. Perfect for children!')"

Wilmott, a black university professor as well as director, says "There are a lot of people right now who want to hold onto their Confederate heritage, but that heritage is somehow divorced from slavery. The movie puts slavery as the centerpiece. Finally we're going to discuss the Civil War as if slavery mattered. So those people are going to probably feel a little uncomfortable."

There's more on CSA here.

Meanwhile the Tredegar National Civil War Museum will put slavery at the center of its new ACW museum in Richmond (see News, below).