The saga of a black Sea Island family planning to migrate north at the turn of the century is the subject of director Julie Dash`s first feature film, scheduled for a Chicago premiere this week.
”Daughters of the Dust” focuses on the women of the Peazant family. The film pits the 88-year-old matriarch against other family members who want to break free from long-held religious beliefs and cultural traditions.
The film, which received the cinematography award at the Sundance Film Festival this year, is set on a predominantly black island off the coast of Georgia. Its inhabitants speak Gullah, a dialect.
Dash, 39, is an Atlanta-based independent film producer whose short film
”Illusions” was named Best Film of the Decade in 1989 by the Black Filmmaker Foundation.
”My films are about women at pivotal moments in their lives,” Dash says. Her characters, she says, ”are enigmatic women, women who speak to each other in fractured sentences, yet communicate completely through familiar gestures and stance. They are women who remind me of my old neighborhood and the women who raised me.”
”Daughters of the Dust” opens the weeklong 10th anniversary of
”Blacklight: An International Festival of Black Film.” Blacklight Inc. is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that promotes the work of black filmmakers.
Dash will be at the premiere at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard. Admission is $12. For information call 312-443-3733. c8
