The seventh in the ongoing series of the Chicago screenings of the L.A. Rebellion touring film series will
continue on Tuesday May 21 with a
screening of a newly restored print of Julie
Dash’s impressionistic 1991 film Daughters
of the Dust.
Dash’s film, which was named to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2004 as a film that definitely meets their criteria of being “a culturally,
historically or aesthetically significant film,” is one of the
most important and unique black films ever made. It was also the first film to
be directed by an African-American woman to receive a national theatrical release.
There hasn’t been anything like it before and there hasn’t
been anything like it since.
The film, which is set in the beginning of the 20th
century in 1902, deals with the Gullah Peazant
family as they prepare, with great apprehension and doubt, to leave their South Carolina Sea Island home to a new
life in the North and a very uncertain future.
And along with Daughters, a new restoration of Ms. Dash’s
1977 short film The Dairy of an African Nun,
which was adapted from a short story by Alice
Walker and starring Barbara O. Jones, who also appears in Daughters, as Haile
Gerima’s Bush Mama and Child
of Resistance, will be shown as well.
And the filmmaker herself, Julie Dash, will be present for
the screening.
The screening starts at 7PM and will take place at the Logan
Center of the Arts located on the University
of Chicago campus at 915 E. 60th St.
And Northwestern
University professor and curator of the L.A. Rebellion film series, Jacqueline Stewart, will introduce the
films and conduct a Q and A with Ms. Dash afterward.
The series, so far, has been a rousing success with
packed audiences, and, no doubt, the screening of daughters is going to be a “must see” event, so make sure to get your FREE tickets ASAP. But you must RSVP right HERE.
Here’s the trailer for Daughters of the Dust:
