Widely considered to be the first filmmaker to successfully capture on film the sensibilities of contemporary African American writers like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, Julie Dash earned those credentials, and was the first African American woman to have a feature film distributed nationally, with her groundbreaking 1991 film Daughters of the Dust, which The New York Times called “a film of spellbinding visual beauty.” In the film, a family of complex and strong minded Gullah women and men struggle with the decision to leave the South Carolina Sea Island that has been their home for more than a century. Dash will appear in person to introduce the film and answer questions following the screening on Friday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall.

With dialogue in Geeche language and Gullah dialect, the film depicts the Peazant family in 1902 as some of its members prepare to depart Dawtuh Island, off the Carolina coast, for what they believe will be a better life in the North. The family, which proudly traces its roots to those Africans brought as captives to the island years earlier, struggles to hold on to their culture in the face of a changing world that threatens to destroy it.

The film centers around an elaborate meal, and as the gumbo simmers, so do tensions among family members: 88-year-old Nana, clan matriarch, tries to imbue them with spiritual beliefs for the journey; Haagar thinks their rituals are pure foolishness; Yellow Mary has returned home to escape life as a prostitute and nurse in Cuba; and Eula is pregnant with a baby her husband believes is illegitimate.

Dash faced tremendous obstacles in making the film, a process that took more than ten years. To raise funds to make the film, Dash began by collecting grant funding from regional organizations that ranged from $5,000 to $16,000 to create a ten-minute trailer for the film. In 1987, with the trailer in hand, she received $650,000 from PBS’ American Playhouse and another $150,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. American Playhouse allowed for a two-year theatrical release with television broadcasting to follow, the same deal offered to earlier films such as Stand and Deliver and Native Son.

The project was plagued by Hurricane Hugo and an infestation of insects that pestered the cast and crew relentlessly during shooting. In post-production, the composer quit in a contract dispute and the replacement had two weeks to write a new score. Money ran out several more times; Dash raised funds through more grants, typist work and by making medical videos for health professionals.

Shortly after the films release, Dash was offered a two-book deal by Dutton to continue the family’s story. In 1997, her debut novel, Daughters of the Dust, was published and featured in Publisher’s Weekly’s First Fiction issue. The book expands and continues the story set out in the film.

Set in 1926, the book follows Amelia, an anthropology student at a Brooklyn College, as she chooses to study the family for her senior thesis. Born and reared in Harlem, she knows very little about her family history, aside from her mother Myown’s wistful memories and the bitterness harbored by her grandmother, Haagar, who fled the Gullah’s “backward” ways and her own painful past. Amelia earns the family’s trust with the help of her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth is carrying on in her grandmother’s footsteps as a healer and keeper of the old ways. She helps Amelia travel the long road down her family’s past, which unfolds in a series of snapshots as family members tell their own stories and those of their relatives.

Dash first came to the attention of the film industry in 1983 with her 34-minute short Illusions, starring Lonette McKee as a Hollywood executive who’s passing for white in 1942. It was named one of the best films of the decade by the Black Filmmakers Foundation. Since the release of Daughters of the Dust, she has directed the Grammy-nominated video for Tracy Chapman’s hit song Give Me One Reason, and has made films for Showtime and the HBO anthology series Subway Stories.

Tickets to this event are available in advance at the UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office or may be purchased at the door, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this event is co-sponsored by the UCSB Departments of Black Studies and Women’s Studies, the UCSB MultiCultural Center and UCSB Women’s Center. As part of Arts & Lectures’ winter films, it is also sponsored by The Santa Barbara Independent, K-LITE 101.7 FM, KCSB 91.9 FM, the Daily Nexus, Blue Agave, Mercury Lounge and Santa Barbara Video Productions.

For more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Roman Baratiak at (805) 893-2080.