Is it magic?
Is it a dream?
Or is it a deeper truth that surpasses understanding?
Lyrical and majestic, this film has stayed with me since the first viewing.
"Daughters of the Dust" (1991)
Directed and Written by Julie Dash
Image: Bahni Turpin ("Iona Peazant"), BarbaraO ("Yellow Mary"), Trula Hoosier ("Trula")
Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust" employs magical realism to explore the story of the Gullah (or Geechee) people living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Isolated from many outside influences, the people have retained many aspects of the African cultures from which they were stolen during the time of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Set in 1902, the world is changing, and African Americans in the South have begun the Great Migration north. Who will leave, who will stay, and how much of their culture will remain?
Writer-director Julie Dash was the first African American woman to have a film put into general release, and at the time I thought that she would become one of our most important film directors. Life - and work opportunities for African American women in the film industry - is more complicated than that. Though she has worked sporadically since this film, her landmark work remains influential. (See: Beyonce, "Lemonade". Below, images from her longform video are paired with shoots from "Daughters of the Dust".)
Kudos to the glorious cinematography of Arthur Jafa, as well.
"Daughters of the Dust" doesn't take the viewer on a linear, easily explicable journey. It is more complex, more subtle and more ambitious than that. It does not serve the world of art, or the world at large, well that there are so many tales that remain unheard. I urge everyone who is interested in seeing how filmmakers who are outside of the mainstream can expand and enhance the art of film.
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