Get Your Reps In: “Daughters of the Dust” Helped Inspire Beyoncé

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

The first film directed by an African American woman to receive a wide theatrical release, Daughters of the Dust remains a remarkable achievement 35 years later. Writer-director Julie Dash’s feature debut intertwines three generations of Gullah women on a secluded sea island off the coast of Georgia. There, the descendants of enslaved Africans have forged their own culture, and the Peazant family finds itself in a seemingly eternal state of migration and return.

Narratively, Daughters of the Dust is a fascinating combination of novelistic sensibilities and nonlinear poetry. The multigenerational stories clearly parallel each other, while the lyrical editing and narration from an unborn child bend the storytelling form to suggest scions and ancestors communicating across time.

Visually speaking, Daughters of the Dust is in the running for the most epic American movie ever made for under $1 million. In the opening minutes alone, there’s a slow zoom-out of a Cherokee islander perched in a titanic, mossy tree that would make David Lean blush. Moreover, the striking imagery of Gullah women dancing on the beach in flowing white dresses is a noted inspiration for Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Clinton, Feb. 27.

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