Daughters of the Dust

Daughters of the Dust is an independent film that was released in 1991. This movie tells the story of a Gullah family that is moving from the Sea Island to the mainland of America. The film focuses on the three generations of women in the family who are conflicting on whether or not they should move or not. The main conflict is between the family matriarch, Nana, and the daughter returning from the mainland, Viola. Nana believes that the family should stay on the island because it is the home of their ancestors and where they belong. Viola believes that the family should move because they need the influences of the mainland and the love of Jesus. Throughout the film, many family members are torn between staying close to their roots and leaving for a new life entirely. There are also several other conflicts throughout the film. One was involving Eli and his wife Eula and another involved Haagar, her daughter Iona, and St. Julien Lastchild. The film shows how the elder family member holds on to her beliefs and is dedicated to her ancestors heritage.

This movie is told in a somewhat confusing fashion, one that I was not particularly fond of. Throughout the movie there is narration about things that have happened in the past and how they affect the present. The narration, however, changes from character to character depending on the scene. For the most part it was narrated by Eula's unborn child, but it was also narrated by Nana, Viola, and several others. This made the story hard to follow and the points made didn't seem to stick. Several sequences of scenes did not seem to follow any strict order and seemed to make the tensions of the movie even more intense.

Overall, I was not a huge fan of this movie, however, I did appreciate the heritage and the passion with which the story was told. The narration could have been done differently to better draw the viewer into the movie. This film did not give me a feel for each character and I felt distant from the whole family. In the end I wished I knew more about the lives of the Gullah family and what roles each of them played throughout daily life.