The sensitive story of a large African-American family leaving their Gullah Island homeland for the promise of a new and better future, and the fears and changes they confront along the way. Winner of the Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
1902. In the remote Sea Islands off Georgia, where African-Americans lived and retained their traditional language and culture, a family prepares to leave and migrate north. As they celebrate this one last day of togetherness at a picnic, Nana Peazant, the family's matriarch who has chosen to stay behind, tells stories of their African ancestors and the arrival of slaves on the American shores. By exhorting her loved ones never to forget this past, she tries to assure their future strength -- which must always come from a respect for oneself and one's history.
Winner of the award for Best Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival.
Shot on location in the Sea Islands.
Copyright 1991, Geechee Girls Productions.
Music performed by:
African percussion/vocals: Jesus Pedro Orta, Menge Hernandez, Francis Awe, Bill Summers, Elo
Eastern percussion: Manoocheher Sadeghi, Ashhad Khan
Vocalists: Rosa Parrilla, Valentina Soares, Abiola, Dianne Richburg, Felicidad, Yvette Bostic, Radhaz, Hanif Noor, Mohammed, Allen Fovary II, Micki Butler
Bill Summers was the African Percussion/Vocals Coordinator.
Ronald Daise was the Gullah Language Consultant. Margaret Washington-Creel was the Historical Consultant.
Julie Dash worked on this film for many years, despite difficulty getting funding. She started outlining the story in 1975, planning to do a short, but the idea kept developing until it became feature length.
Because the African-Americans who lived on the Sea Islands remained more isolated from outside influences than did their counterparts on the mainland, they were better able to maintain their traditional language, culture and religion.
Rated BBFC PG by the British Board of Film Classification.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Letterbox - 1.85
Audio:
(unspecified) - English
Additional Release Material:
Behind the Scenes: "Touching Our Own Spirit: The Making of DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST"
Shorts: Excerpt from Spencer Williams' THE BLOOD OF JESUS (1941)
Audio Commentary: Julie Dash - Director
Isolated Audio Track: Musical Score
Interviews: Robert Farris Thompson - Historian
Trailers: Theatrical Trailer
Alternate Scenes:
1. Never-Before-Seen Footage From Preliminary Version of Film
2. Deleted Scenes
Text/Photo Galleries:
Biographies: Cast & Crew
Filmographies: Cast & Crew
Director of Photography
Arthur Jafa:
Production Designer
Kerry Marshall: PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Review 1:
"...A film of spellbinding visual beauty....[Dash] emerges as a strikingly original film maker..."
Source: New York Times
p.C19 01/16/1992
Review 2:
"...[The film] boasts a novel setting off the Georgia-South Carolina coast..."
Source: USA Today
p.6D 04/01/1992
Review 3:
"...This languid, unhurried film concentrates on exploring sensations in an almost ritualistic way....DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST very much has a power all its own..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F10 03/06/1992
Review 4:
"...A tone poem of old memories....It is all a matter of notes and moods, music and tones of voice, atmosphere and deep feeling..."
Source: Chicago Bulletin
p.35 03/13/1992
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