Streaming Daughters of the Dust Online
Saturday, May 29th, 2010 |
Streaming Daughters of the Dust Online.
Movie Title: Daughters of the Dust Daughters of the Dust is available for streaming or downloading. |
In the opening of her film, Daughters of the Dust, Julie Drag alerts the viewer that this is no ordinary African American epic. Conversely, this is an American history lesson with African origins. A tiny informative ticket at the launch of the film puts the entire movie in context. Without this explanatory foreword, many viewers would probably get the film hard to understand. Though the movie tells the yarn of the Peazant family’s migration from the sea islands of the South, the account also gives a panoramic plan of the Gullah culture at-large. Because the islands are isolated from the mainland states, the Gullah withhold a clear African ethnicity and culture. Ironically, the Peazants want to rid themselves of the passe ways and heritage, thus beginning an exodus from the islands to the mainland. Taking situation in 1902, honest fifty years after the demolish of slavery, Daughter of the Dust explores the Peazant’s struggle for survival and sprint from poverty. The movie opens on the eve of the family’s gigantic migration to the mainland. A family celebration and farewell-of-sorts acquire site on the beach. The Peazants even hire a photographer to document this momentous occasion. As the movie progresses, the complexity of the family’s departure from the island emerges. Dissimilarity and changing values mire the pending migration with conflict and strife. As the family prepares to leave, in search of a fresh life and better future, the film reveals the richness of the Gullah heritage. Narrations of “the unborn child” of Eli and Eula Peazant offer glimpses into problems the family has faced since their existence on the island. As explained by matriarch Nana Peazant, the Gullah are like “two people in one body.” Though most Peazants were born in the Americas, their African heritage is forever evident. The internal conflicts of this duality haunt the family as they become ensnarled in battle, only to war against themselves. Through aged African customs and rituals, such as glass bottle trees, salt water baths, and herb potions, Nana wants to ensure that the family stays together. Moreover, Nana, “the last of the former,” has chosen to halt on the island. She celebrates everything that makes her who she is: the plain and the honorable. She knows slavery and she knows freedom. Her life revolves around the continuation and strengthening of the Peazant family. Her rituals are often unappreciated and looked upon with scorn by other family members. Some family members are unwilling to purchase Nana’s teachings and wisdom. They want to elope the island, to urge away from the Gullah map of life. However, they cannot hurry from themselves. Honest as Nana proclaims, they will always live a double life, no matter where they go. The coast to the mainland certainly cannot rid their indigo stained hands of its blue-blackish tint. Nor can the northern crawl erase the memories of whom or what they are leaving. Unbeknownst to the younger Peazants, the duality, the recollections and remembrances, and the feeble design and traditions are gifts from their ancestors. Sadly, few are able to procure these gifts or comprehend their importance. Through authentic Gullah dialect, shining imagery and smart characters, Sprint reveals the uniqueness of the Gullah people. A cousin, Yellow Mary, returns from Cuba to the island, facing the scorn of her people because she is a “ruint `oman.” Haggar, a bitter woman who wants nothing to do with the frail Gullah ways, does not realize that she cannot rid herself of whom she is. For example, she despises the “extinct Africans,” yet retains their ways in her speech and expend of African colloquialisms. Another cousin, Viola is corpulent of Christian religious fervor and against the heathen practices and nature-worshiping traditions of her people. Eula, who gives a heart- wrenching soliloquy at the ruin of the movie, bears the burden of pregnancy and rape by a white man. Eli, Eula’s husband, represents the strength and future of the Peazant clan. Besides being adept at character development, Julie Breeze effectively educates the viewer about African-American history. Tales of flying Africans, water-walking Ibo, Islamic religion, and slave trading are skillfully woven in microscopic snatches throughout the film. We also peruse connections between African-Americans and Native Americans. The lessons learned from this film are too numerous. One must examine the film more than once to indulge in all the information presented. Daughters of the Dust awakens all the senses. The ravishing cinematography transports viewers to a surreal residence and time, creating a visual paradise. Each scene makes its introduction with mesmerizing African music, which aptly fits each setting. As the Gullah women prepare food for the feast, one cannot serve but imagine the taste and smell of gumbo, petite, and crab. This movie also arouses the heart. One can easily identify and empathize with the characters’ passion and sincerity. Often, the characters relay sentiments and convictions so convincingly, that it is hard to bear that the players were acting. Notion complete passages is often difficult because of the pretty and authentic tonality of the language. Nonetheless, the employ of standard English could not have conveyed Dash’s message as successfully. We should be pleased this film for its originality and courage. Stories such as these are hardly ever told. Most films neglect the eclectic nature of the African American community, usually focusing on only aspects that are familiar to the masses. Here, Julie Lag reaches beyond the boundaries that are residence for African-American films. Equally as considerable is her ability and willingness to validate the African-American experience. She eloquently and subtly deals with difficult subjects such as slavery, self-hatred, feminism, color prejudices, and rape. Straggle does not throw one viewpoint in your face. Conversely, Promenade gives the viewer a front row seat into the lives of a worthy people. We are then left to method conclusions for ourselves. One feels liberated, proud, and honored to be allowed a window into their lives. The movie is a celebration of the African-American diaspora. The images, language, and music of Daughters of the Dustwill linger in the minds of its fortunate viewers forever.
Julie Dash’s film “Daughters of the Dust” is a movie of such entertaining beauty as to leave you spellbound. It’s the tale of a Gullah family in the Sea Islands of Georgia, preparing to relocate to the mainland in 1902. The Sea Islands, as Julie Crawl tells us in the companion volume written for the film, were the Ellis Islands of the transatlantic slave trade, the dropping off point and processing center for the forced immigration of untold millions of Africans. Because of this, African cultural influences are more strongly rooted here than anywhere else in the United States. At the head of the family is Nana Peazant, a matriarch whose composed strength has seen her through slavery to the hard days of Reconstruction and beyond. Her children and their husbands and wives have decided to peep a future in the more unusual environment of the mainland. They’ve grown tired of the backwardness of the island and want to spread their wings. But as Nana, who resolutely determines to cease set, has foreseen, they can hold themselves from the island, but they can’t bewitch the island from within themselves, any more than they can select the indigo dye of the island from their hands; they are marked forever by a share of their culture that will never go away. Along with Nana, we meet Yellow Mary, a cousin who has returned from Cuba as a fallen woman, unconsciously clinging to her roots as hard as she tries to pull away from them; Haggar, a bitter, possessive woman who attempts to absorb onto her two young daughters, MyOwn and Iona (”I Contain Her”), even as they attempt to atomize away and execute their bear destiny; Viola, using her hidebound Christianity as a shield to cloak from her African heritage, and Eula and Eli, coping with the devastation of Eula’s rape and impregnation by a white man, whose Unborn Child is the narrator of this film. There is heartbreak for Nana, watching her family proceed from the home that has been theirs for generations, and for Haggar, whose daughter Iona decided to create her enjoy destiny by eloping with her Native American lover. Julie Skedaddle has managed to perform film so sincere and so evocative that it transports us lawful into the action; we are there on the beach, feeling the heat, smelling the gumbo cooking, and listening to the glowing tonalities of the Gullah dialect. The acting by all the characters is apt throughout, with special mention for standout performances by Cora Lee Day as Nana Peazant, Alva Rogers as Eula Peazant, and Barbara O. Jones as Yellow Mary; but the staunch star in this film is the lovely cinematography which is unlike anything I have ever seen in any film. The movie is so visually heavenly that one unprejudiced sits and watches awestruck. An equally strong script, well acted by the cast, gives the movie a depth and meaning that makes the film worth watching over and over. “Daughters of the Dust” is mighty more than a movie; it’s an emotionally charged history lesson of a slight known area and a tiny known culture. It remains inside you, a allotment of you, long after the final credits have ended.
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