NATCHEZ — Nellie Jackson thumbed her nose at what people said her life should be as a Mississippi woman.

The story of her life and the mythology that surrounds the African-American woman who ran a bordello simply known as Nellie’s for decades at the corner of Monroe and Rankin streets will be told onscreen today as two local filmmakers premiere a documentary shot over the past three years about the Woodville native.

“Mississippi Madam: The Life of Nellie Jackson,” a film by Mark Brockway and Timothy Givens, will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Natchez Convention Center. The screening is part of pre-conference festivities for the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, which goes through Saturday.

Jackson died in July 1990, a week after a neighbor allegedly doused her in gasoline and set her afire, reportedly angered because she had turned him away from the bordello for being drunk. She had operated the house since the 1930s, and one of her rules was that clients had to show up sober.

Over the years, Jackson had formed friendships with city officials, could be spotted in a pew at St. Mary Basilica or driving her Cadillac around town and was known for her generosity toward those in need.

Brockway and Givens began work on the documentary three years ago and have spent hundreds of hours working and hundreds of miles traveling to interview approximately 170 people who collectively shared the relatively unknown story of Jackson.

“I think because it’s been over 25 years (since her death), she’s a name everyone knows, but they don’t know about her story,” Givens said.

Givens and Brockway said they hope to illuminate in the film little known aspects of who Jackson was and the life she led beyond the bordello.

“I think you can make some clarifications about the mythology that surrounds (Jackson) and her business and see the important life she lived,” Brockway said.

Givens said viewers can expect the film to reveal a few surprises about Jackson.

“There are definitely several surprises you will not be expecting,” he said.

While it took three years to make the film, Brockway and Givens said they are happy to finally share the film at NLCC.

“I think people have been wondering what we’ve been doing for the past three years,” Givens said.

Scanning 60 years of newspapers and courthouse documents, traveling all across Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas for interviews, filming and editing, all while working full-time jobs, has meant working most weekends to finish the film. Brockway is manager of The Castle Restaurant in Natchez, and Givens is design editor for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

“There were certain times in the project I felt like maybe we would never see the light at the end of the tunnel, but when I started editing it and we were finishing, I was like, ‘This is real, and this is going to happen,’” Givens said.

Donations through crowdfunding helped pay for the film. The documentary would also not have been possible, Brockway and Givens say, without the help of Jackson’s great-niece Nellie Faye Howard.

“There’s a litany of emotions I have,” Brockway said. “There’s a really great sense of, warts and all, knowing that it’s a good piece. We did our due diligence, and there’s also kind of this sense of, ‘What do we do now? What’s next?’”

For now, Brockway and Givens say they will enjoy the moment and look forward to audiences seeing the film to learn about the woman they have come to admire.

“I am unabashedly an admirer of hers and what she did,” Brockway said. “She thumbed her nose at what Mississippi told her her life should be.

“You can question her business, but you can’t question her determination, her business acumen and her tenacity.”