2021 Blind Spot Series: Daughters of the Dust

 

Written and directed by Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust is the story of three generations of women living on Saint Helena Island as they try to migrate to the north in 1902. The film is a period drama that involve three generations of women known as Gullah as it is told in a non-linear narrative with Gullah dialogue as it play into women trying to define themselves during the early 20th Century. Starring Cora Lee Day, Barbara O. Jones, Alva Rogers, Trula Hoosier, Umar Abdurrahamn, Adisa Anderson, and Kaycee Moore. Daughters of the Dust is a rich and ravishing film from Julie Dash.

Set mainly in the span of a day for a picnic at the Saint Helena Island near the borders of South Carolina and Georgia in 1902, the film revolves around a group of women living in the island as well as a few who are coming to visit the matriarch as they deal with some wanting to migrate north for a better life in the modern world. It’s a film that features a large ensemble that play into this event with people who live outside of the island but grew up at this island as they’re all descended from West African slaves with some living at the island isolated from the trappings of the modern world. Julie Dash’s screenplay doesn’t exactly follow a traditional narrative though it opens and ends with a group of people arriving and leaving this island as there are many threads as it relates to the many people in this island with some trying to figure out their own identity, their own future, and the past in upholding tradition and a culture that is foreign to the rest of the world.

Part of that culture is the fact that many of the people speak a certain dialect known as Gullah that is this mixture of creole and African languages as it has a unique tone to the way people speak but also has a richness in the language that is unlike anything. Notably in the fact that the film is narrated by an unseen and unborn character (Kay-Lynn Warren) who talks about the world these characters live and how they talk to one another as there’s a rhythm to the dialogue that play into the ups and downs of the world these people live in as it adds to a conflict of those who want to be part of the world but there are those that want to stay in this island to uphold these traditions. Notably as it would center around this picnic where generations of people including women would all gather as if this might be the last time they all see each other again.

Dash’s direction is intoxicating for its emphasis on realism but also in maintaining something that is dreamlike as it is shot on location at St. Helena Island where it is a character in the film as it is this world that is rich in its beauty but also carries a legacy and culture that is of its own separated from the more conventional culture in America at that time. Dash maintains this atmosphere in the direction where she uses the location in and around the island where it is a world that carries these roots based on West Africa including some of the clothes the people wear as well as the different yet natural hairstyles the women were sporting as it adds to the identity of these women as it helps maintain that authenticity in Dash’s direction. Dash’s usage of the wide and medium shots doesn’t just have this air of beauty in the way she capture the locations but also in some of the imagery she creates as it include these striking compositions that add to the beauty of the film. Dash also maintains an intimacy in the close-ups including in some of the conversations that involves the people in the film including scenes of the women at the beach along with a group of men having their own conversations.

Dash’s direction also play into this conflict of characters wanting to create their own identity in a world that is ever changing but there are those that refuse to leave the island including a Native American that one of the women is in love with. There are also these discussions about trauma and identity as one of the visitors is a free-spirit who has taken a woman as her lover against the ideals of another in a devout-Christian. The many narratives do play into the struggles that some of these characters are going through that include some perspective from the men yet Dash somehow manages to make them all connect as it all play into a rich climax of people ultimately deciding their fate but also choosing to be true to who they are and where they come from. Overall, Dash crafts a rapturous and evocative film about a group of people lead by women living in a remote island all coming together for a picnic to discuss their past, present, and future.

Cinematographer Arthur Jafa does phenomenal work with the film’s cinematography as it uses mainly natural light to create something that feels real and intoxicating in its visuals including its usage of sunlight as it is a highlight of the film. Editors Joseph Burton and Amy Carey do excellent work with the editing as its usage of slow-motion shots, jump-cuts, and straight cuts that allow monologues to linger for a few minutes in one shot and only cutting when it was needed. Production designer Kerry Marshall and art director Michael Kelly Williams do amazing work with the look of the huts and graveyard site that is in the island where some of the inhabitants live in.

Costume designer Arline Burks Gant does fantastic work with the costumes as it play into the turn-of-the-century period clothing with a lot of white dresses for the women and girls as well as a few ragged suits that the men wear. Sound editor Jeremy Hoenack does brilliant work with the sound as it help play into the natural atmosphere of the locations including the sound ocean waves as well as other sparse sounds in some parts of the location. The film’s music by John Barnes is incredible for its exotic music score that feature elements of Middle Eastern and African percussion and world beats mixed in with ambient and art-rock textures including fretless bass lines as it help play into the atmosphere of the drama and the locations in the film as it is a major highlight of the film.

The casting by Len Hunt is superb as it feature some notable small roles from Umar Abdurrahman as a Muslim inhabitant of the island in Bilal Muhammad, M. Cochise Anderson as the Native American resident in St. Julien Lastchild, Cornell Royal as the patriarch of the Peazant family, Trula Hoosier as Yellow Mary’s lover, Bahni Turpin as Iona who is in love with St. Julien, and Kay-Lynn Warren in a largely unseen role as the film’s unborn narrator who would become the daughter for a couple in the film. Adisa Anderson and Alva Rogers are fantastic in their respective roles as the couple Eli and Eula with the former being the grandson of the family’s matriarch as he struggles about wanting to leave to go north while the latter is someone coping with trauma following her own encounters with the modern world. Kaycee Moore is excellent as Iona’s mother Haagar as a woman that is eager to go north in the hopes for a better life as she is leading the migration towards north.

Barbara O. Jones is brilliant as Yellow Mary as a free-spirited woman who wears a yellow dress as someone who shares a common bond with Eula while dealing with the fact that she brought an outsider to the picnic. Tommy Hicks and Cheryl Lynn Bruce are amazing in their respective roles as the photographer Mr. Snead and devout-Christian Viola with the latter being someone who is from the island as she brings the former who takes an interest in the people as well as photographing them. Finally, there’s Cora Lee Day in an incredible performance as the family matriarch Nana Peazant as a woman who is happy to see her family though isn’t happy about the decision of some migrating north as she is a symbol of tradition and heritage as it is this understated yet fierce performance that holds the film together.

Daughters of the Dust is a spectacular film from Julie Dash. Featuring an incredible ensemble cast, ravishing visuals, a hypnotic music soundtrack, an unconventional yet engaging script, and themes of identity and heritage. It is a film that explores a world that is unique that is carried by tradition and an obscure culture with people wanting to keep it alive despite the presence of the modern world. In the end, Daughters of the Dust is a tremendous film from Julie Dash.

© thevoid99 2021