Daughters of the Dust
(1991)

Director: Julie Dash

Key Cast : Adisa Anderson, Barbara O., Cherly Lynn Bruce, Cora Lee Day, Geraldine Dunston, Vertamae Grovernsor, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Kaycee Moore, Eartha Robinson, Alva Rogers, Cornell Royal (‘Kofi)

Rating: Not Rated

Genre(s): Drama

A film of spellbinding visual beauty and brilliant resonant performances, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust has become a landmark of independent film.  With great lyricism, Daughters of the Dust tells the story of a large African-American family as they prepare to move North at the dawn of the 20th Century.    Using this simple tale, the film brings to life the changing values, conflicts and struggles that confront every family as they leave their homeland for the promise of a new and better future.

In addition to this emotionally charged spic drama, Daughters of the Dust explores the unique culture of the Gullah people, descendants of slaves who lived in relative isolation on the Sea Islands off the Georgia coast.  As the generations struggle with the decision to leave, their rich Gullah heritage and African roots rise to the surface.

Amongst a score of extraordinary performances are Cora Lee Day as Nana, the matriarch of the Peazant clan, Alva Rogers as Eula, who has been raped by a white landowner, and Barbara-O as Yellow Mary, a woman of the world who has come home “ruint” from Cuba.

Daughters of the Dust is an African-American treasure, a vitally important work by a major directing talent.

∙  The director of this movie, Julie Dash, is the first African-American female director to have a movie distributed nationally.

∙ Julie Dash worked on this film for ten years before she made it.  She received grants and assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  She conducted a lot of in-depth research, including collecting oral histories of the Gullah people and studying their dialects.

∙  Much of the dialogue in Daughters of the Dust is spoken in the Gullah language.

∙  Daughters of the Dust was shot on location on St. Helena Island in South Carolina.

∙  Selected in 1991 to the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

∙  Won 1991 Sundance Film Festival Award for Cinematography.

∙  Nominated for 1991 Sundance Film Festival for Grand Jury Prize.

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"Daughters of the Dust" is one of the few acclaimed movies
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Director Julie Dash worked on this film for 10 years.

 
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