Daughters of the Dust (1991)

I had rejected this option once before, but a Meetup group was set to discuss it. You can tell it's a small group, because they rescheduled when I couldn't get the disc as soon as estimated. I made a point to wait until the day of our session to watch so the details would stay fresh in my mind. Let's hope I remember enough of the discussion now.

In 1902, much of a large Gullah/Geechee family prepares to move from what is best known as St. Simons Island, Georgia, to the mainland for better opportunities. Among other things, this includes a visit from relatives who have already been away for quite a while, and it shows, especially with the Christian convert (Kaycee Moore). The old matriarch (Cora Lee Day) is too traditional to leave, and her grandson (Adisa Anderson) has trouble deciding.

In a sense, so little happens before their boating departure that I'd almost call the story a slice of life. But tensions often run high as characters have their disagreements, not least about which cultural aspects to embrace, or else reminisce on traumas and scandals. At some points, I thought, "Does this really merit that strong a reaction?" That's if I could even tell what the problem was.

Arguably, the picture's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: exoticism. Like Menashe, it depicts a side of the U.S. so different from usual as to seem like another country. Of course, this is set much longer ago, but I'm sure it would have felt that way even then. At least I knew a few things about the Hasidic populace in New York; Gullahs were entirely new to me and, for the most part, the other Meetup members, making them both interesting and perplexing to us. We could have used more explanation.

For about a minute, the Gullah dialect gets thick enough to be subbed by default. Some of us wanted more subtitles, but I had an easy enough time understanding the rest of the dialog, jarred only by features like using "we" as an object pronoun. Really, the British dialect in Kes was much harder for me. The overall culture is another story. FWIW, the only non-Black character on screen in DotD is a briefly appearing Cherokee with no lines.

Artistically, DotD is a mixed bag. On one hand, there are major efforts to evoke the past and future (from a 1902 standpoint) in a highly spiritual way. The narrator, a young girl (Kay-Lynn Warren), is but a fetus at the time, bringing to mind a Toni Morrison-type magical realism. OTOH, the pacing of the 112 minutes is sloppy, and several camera shots were way off center, suggesting an amateur cinematographer. Well, it is an indie.

Maybe someday I'll watch a version with director Julie Dash's commentary. Or maybe a second viewing will suffice to let me absorb what I missed the first time. But for now, I'd rather move on. It's not the sort of thing I like to dwell on for long stretches.