DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST

Nation: U.S.A.
Directed by Julie Dash
Main cast: Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbarao
Year: 1991
Length: 112′
Language: Original English audio version
Version: DCP, international distribution by Park Circus for concession of Cohen
NC-17

At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina ­ former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions ­ struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots. Much like the family at its heart, the film exists in a world somewhat of its own; its visual language is distinctive and poetic, its spoken dialogue adopts the islanders’ native creole and it draws on a cultural heritage and narrative mythos far removed from much of American independent cinema.
Julie Dash, screenwriter and director, is a member of the L.A. Rebellion, a group of African and African-American authors who trained at the UCLA Film School in the late 1960s and helped create a quality black cinema as an alternative to classic Hollywood cinema. Her first feature film was the first film directed by an African-American woman to get a regular distribution in the United States.