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Daughters of the Dust

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Director: Julie Dash Run Time: 112 min. Release Year: 1991

Starring: Alva Rogers, Barbara O. Jones, Cora Lee Day, Trula Hoosier, Umar Abdurrahamn

At the dawn of the 20th century, a family in the Gullah community of coastal South Carolina — former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions — suffers a generational split. Young Haagar (Kaycee Moore) wants to move to the mainland away from tradition-bound matriarch Nana (Cora Lee Day). Former prostitute Yellow Mary (Barbara-O) gets a cold shoulder when she returns to the island with her female lover, especially from her sister Viola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce).

“An Atlanta-based artist making her long-worked-for feature debut, Ms. Dash is a filmmaker of startling originality and delicacy. Her film is poetry in motion, part dream-memory, part tattered family album.” ~ Eleanor Rangel Cater, Atlanta Journal Constitution

Sight & Sound Rank #60

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