Daughters of the Dust (1991)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Julie Dash

Writer:

Julie Dash (writer)

Release Date:

27 December 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where...

Plot Keywords:

Gullah Culture | Island | Sea Islands | Lyrical | Poignant

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Cora Lee Day	...	Nana Peazant
Alva Rogers	...	Eula Peazant
Barbarao	...	Yellow Mary
Trula Hoosier	...	Trula
Umar Abdurrahamn	...	Bilal Muhammad
Adisa Anderson	...	Eli Peazant
Kaycee Moore	...	Haagar Peazant
Bahni Turpin	...	Iona Peazant
Cheryl Lynn Bruce	...	Viola Peazant
Tommy Redmond Hicks	...	Mr. Snead
Malik Farrakhan	...	Newlywed Man
Cornell Royal	...	Daddy Mack Peazant
Vertamae Grosvenor	...	Hair Braider
Sherry Jackson	...	Older Cousin
Reverend Ervin Green	...	Baptist Minister
Marcus Humphrey	...	Boatman
Bernard Wilson	...	Boatman
Althea Lang	...	Newlywed Woman
Catherine Tarver	...	Woman with Baby
Jasmine Lee	...	Peazant Baby
Dalisia Robinson	...	Peazant Baby
Willie Faulkner	...	Peazant Man
Frank Brown	...	Peazant Man
Rueben Fripp	...	Peazant Man
Derrick Coaxum	...	Peazant Boy
Neil Howard	...	Peazant Boy
Jared Warren	...	Peazant Child
Zenovia Green	...	Peazant Child
Taira Miller	...	Peazant Child
Tiffanye Hills	...	Peazant Child
Jabario Cuthbert	...	Ninnyjugs
Yolanda Simmons	...	Teenage Girl
Ebony Hills	...	Teenage Girl
Jamar Freeman	...	Pete
Detrell Freeman	...	Re-Pete
Vivian Dawson	...	Rice Husker
Inez Griffin	...	Rice Husker
Kai-Lynn Warren	...	Unborn Child
Geraldine Dunston	...	Viola's Mother
M. Cochise Anderson	...	St. Julien Lastchild
Darrell O'Cook	...	Moss Gatherer
Julius Cook	...	Moss Gatherer
Benjamin Gillens	...	Minister's Assistant
Ronald Daise	...	Processional Man
Marie Smalls	...	Woman Being Baptized
Lonnie Moon	...	Baptismal Procession member
De Witt Parker	...	Baptismal Procession member
Emma Robinson	...	Baptismal Procession member
Taylor Thompson	...	Baptismal Procession member
Virginia Green	...	Baptismal Procession member
Maceo Griffin	...	Baptismal Procession member
Archie Thomas	...	Baptismal Procession member
Raymond Paige	...	Baptismal Procession member
Ervena Faulkner	...	Baptismal Procession member
J.R. Wilson	...	Baptismal Procession member
Wilhemina Wilson	...	Baptismal Procession member
Tarell Brown	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Shanna Parker	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Belle White	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Stanley White	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Maxine Royale	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Georgia Wiggins	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Carolyn Garris	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Ella Powell	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Bernice Jenkins	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Lillian Johnson	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Jackie Parker	...	Indigo Plantation worker
Sharria Johnson	...	Young Nana Peazant
Leroy Simmons Jr.	...	Young Daddy Mack

Directed by
Julie Dash

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Julie Dash		writer

Produced by
Julie Dash	....	producer
Pamm R. Jackson	....	associate producer
Arthur Jafa	....	producer
Steven Jones	....	producer
Lindsay Law	....	executive producer
Bernard Nicolas	....	associate producer
Floyd Webb	....	associate producer

Original Music by
John Barnes

Cinematography by
Arthur Jafa

Film Editing by
Joseph Burton
Amy Carey

Casting by
Len Hunt

Production Design by
Kerry Marshall

Art Direction by
Michael Kelly Williams

Costume Design by
Arline Burks

Makeup Department
Rose Chatterton	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
C.C. Barnes	....	assistant director
Nandi Bowe	....	assistant director
Larry Meistrich	....	assistant director
J. Miller Tobin	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ricardo M. Butler	....	set dresser
Frank M. Fleming	....	property assistant

Sound Department
Jeremy Hoenack	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jeremy Hoenack	....	supervising sound editor
Michael Payne	....	sound supervisor
Jerry Trent	....	foley artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Arthur Jafa	....	camera operator
Robin Melhuish	....	assistant camera

Other crew
Lorna Johnson	....	production assistant
Eric Mofford	....	location manager
Tracie Morris	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• American Playhouse
• Geechee Girls
• WMG Film

Distributors

• Kino International (1991) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kino Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• British Film Institute (BFI) (1993) (UK) (theatrical)
• Kino Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1992) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)

Runtime:

UK:112 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

UK:PG

Filming Locations:

St. Helena Island, South Carolina, USA

Company:

American Playhouse

Quotes:

[first lines]
Nana Peazant: I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the barren one and many are my daughters. I am the silence that you can not understand. I am the utterance of my name.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Messenger (1994)

One of the most important African American films of the last 20 years

"Daughters of the Dust" isn't an easy work, but it's a very fine accomplishment, and one of the most important African American films of the last 20 years.

Julie Dash has chosen to share with her audience a chapter of black history that is still new to most white Americans, the internal issues that came with Black Americans as they made their way North in the years between 1900 and 1920. The separation from the soil, the divorce from those remnants of West African culture that survived through the holocaust of slavery. The psychic tearing of the transition from rural to urban culture. The skin game that Yellow Mary and other "fair skinned" Black people had to play in order to survive in White America. If the film is boring to many, let it be plainly said that it is boring for many because the film maker courageously chose to examine a piece of history that most White Americans- and many Black ones- no longer care much about.

If you want to be entertained, this isn't a film you'll enjoy. "Daughters of the Dust" offers instead an opportunity to probe deep, to look close at the dreamy quality of an internal life, and a balanced relationship with the earth, that most of our peoples in the United States have chosen to leave behind them for exactly the wrong reasons. Let those who have difficulty thinking about these things stick to action films. "Daughters of the Dust" is about something more akin to the sense of wonder that's being rapidly stamped out of many of us in the name of mom, apple pie, and the gross national product. It is worth not one, but many viewings. Julie Dash has created a masterpiece of American cinema.