Daughters of the Dust

Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It is the first feature film directed by an AfricanAmerican woman distributed theatrically in the United States. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women in the Peazant family on St. Helena Island in 1902 as they prepare to migrate to the North.

Dash has published two books related to the film Daughters of the Dust The Making of an AfricanAmerican Womans Film 1992, which includes the screenplay and Daughters of the Dust A Novel 1997, setyears after the events in the film.Dash conceived of the film in 1975, originally planning it to be a short without dialogue, a visual account of a Gullah familys preparation to leave their Sea Island home to a new life in the North. It was inspired by her fathers family, who were Gullah and had migrated to New York. As she developed it overyears, she added layers of meaning and clarified her artistic vision. Together with Arthur Jafa, her cinematographer and coproducer, she put together a short film to use for marketing. ........

Source: Wikipedia