Earlier this year, we alerted you to the news that, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its initial presentation at the Sundance Film Festival, a new restoration of Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” would be coming to theaters in the USA later in the year.
Cohen Media Group restored the film with plans to release it in select theaters this month, November, starting today, the 18th). It screen at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.
One of the most significant films in the last quarter century of cinema, it’s wonderful to see Dash’s work back on the big screen for audiences new and old, to witness firsthand the first US feature film made by an African American woman to see wide theatrical release.
Set in the early 1900s, “Daughters” is a vivid portrait of Gullah Geechee culture – communities descended from enslaved Africans who settled along the coast and Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The film captures the last gathering of the Peazant family as the younger generation prepares to leave the island and their matriarch, Nana Peazant (Cora Lee Day), for the promise of the mainland.
The film features the stunning color cinematography of Arthur Jafa, and production design by Kerry James Marshall.
The new restoration, with special thanks to the UCLA Film & Television Archive, was color grade approved by Jafa.
Check out a brand new 25th anniversary poster (above) and HD trailer of the restored version of the film (below), and then go see the film which opens in a limited release (check your local listings):
