Julie Dash’s beautifully restored film Daughters of the Dust will open theatrically on November 18th in time for its 25th anniversary.
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST is a portrait of the women in the Peazant family, who belong to the creole Gullah culture - former slaves living in the Sea Islands who have been able to preserve much of their African cultural heritage. As they prepare to migrate, leaving their land and legacy for the promise of the North, conflict and struggles rise to the surface. It unfolds over the course of their final picnic in their current home; saturating the audience with impressionistic colors, African symbolism, Geechee-Gullah rituals, cooking, and dialect all expressing the complex resonances of the Lowcountry lifestyle. DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST is a post-slavery narrative about cultural memory, notions of home and belonging, and conflicts of Black female identity.