FLORENCE, S.C. – The Francis Marion University English Department will bring Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” on Feb. 10.

Set in 1904, the film celebrates Gullah culture and three generations of African-American women. This winner for cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival is a costume drama about the Peazant family, a fictional group of Gullah natives living on Ido Landing. The secluded family experiences conflicts surrounding religion, industrialization and tradition.

While the story does not attempt to follow a standard Eurocentric narrative, the plot revolves around a picnic on the shore in honor of the family members who chose to move to the prosperity of the north. The narrator is a spirit called the Unborn Child, who appears sometimes as a rambunctious little girl. A photographer accompanies the group to capture the events on film.
 

#106 /2-2-09