Daughters of the Dust

Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent drama film written, directed, and produced by Julie Dash. It is the first feature film directed by an African-American woman to receive a theatrical release in the United States. Set in 1902, the film centers on three generations of Gullah (or Geechee) women from the Peazant family on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, as they prepare to migrate from the rural South to the North.

The film received critical praise for its lush visuals, use of Gullah language, and non-linear narrative structure. The cast includes Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbara-O, Trula Hoosier, Vertamae Grosvenor, and Kaycee Moore. Daughters of the Dust was filmed on location on Saint Helena Island, with Arthur Jafa serving as the director of photography. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991, where Jafa won the top cinematography award.

Daughters of the Dust was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film was restored and re-released in 2016 by the Cohen Media Group to mark its 25th anniversary. Additionally, Dash has authored two books related to the film: a making-of memoir co-written with Toni Cade Bambara and bell hooks, and a sequel novel set two decades after the events of the film.

The film is set in 1902 and centers around the Peazant family, Gullah islanders living at Ibo Landing on Dataw Island (St. Simons Island), off the coast of Georgia. Their ancestors were brought to the island as enslaved people centuries ago. Over time, the islanders developed a unique language—known as Gullah or Sea Island Creole English—and culture, which is a creolized blend of West African traditions from the Igbo, Yoruba, Mende, and Twi peoples, along with some influence from the Bakongo of Central Africa and the cultures and languages of the British Isles. The common variety of English served as the superstratum in this case. Isolated on large plantations, the enslaved people maintained their distinct language and cultural practices, which have endured through the years. The dialogue in the film is in Gullah Creole.

Narrated by the Unborn Child, the future daughter of Eli and Eula, whose voice is shaped by the oral traditions and accounts of her ancestors, the film uses poetic imagery and a circular narrative structure to represent the past, present, and future of the Gullah people. The majority of the family is on the brink of leaving for the mainland to embrace a more modern, "civilized" way of life. The old ways and African ancestral history are embodied by Nana Peazant, the community matriarch, who continues to practice African spiritual rituals. As she bids her family to remember and honor their ancestors during their journey, Nana tells them, "We are two people in one body. The last of the old and the first of the new."

Viola and Yellow Mary, cousins with very different outlooks on life, arrive on the island from the mainland. Viola is a devout Christian, while Yellow Mary (who is 'high yellow,' i.e. mixed-race) is a free spirit who has brought her lover, Trula, from the city. They come to the island by boat for a final family dinner before Yellow Mary departs for Nova Scotia. Mr. Snead, a photographer from the mainland, accompanies Viola and takes portraits of the islanders before they depart from their way of life forever. Meanwhile, a rift in Eli and Eula's marriage unfolds, as Eula is about to give birth after being raped by a white man on the mainland. Eli struggles with the possibility that the unborn child may not be his, while also feeling pressure from his mother to stay connected to his ancestors. The unborn child narrates the film, tracing the legacy of her family before her birth.

Several other family stories unfold within this narrative. Haagar, a cousin, finds the old spiritual beliefs and provincialism of the island to be "backwards" and is eager to leave for a more modern society with educational and economic opportunities. Her daughter, Iona, longs to be with her secret lover, St. Julien Lastchild, a Cherokee who lives on the island. On the day Iona is set to leave, Lastchild gives her a letter confessing his love and asking her to stay.

As the women prepare a traditional feast, including okra, yams, and shellfish cooked on the beach, the men gather in groups nearby to talk and play games. The children and teenagers play, practice religious rites on the beach, and attend a Bible-study session led by Viola. Yellow Mary and Eula bond as survivors of sexual violence. Bilal Muhammad, a cousin believed to be of Igbo descent but hailing from the French West Indies, leads a Muslim prayer. Nana calls upon the spirits of the family’s ancestors, who once worked on the island’s indigo plantations. She combines the power of these ancestors with Viola’s Bible, symbolizing the old and the new.