At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina - former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors' Yoruba traditions - struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots.
The first wide release by a black female filmmaker, Daughters of the Dust was met with wild critical acclaim and rapturous audience response when it initially opened in 1991. Casting a long legacy, Daughters of the Dust still resonates today, most recently as a major in influence on Beyonce's video album Lemonade.
Winner of the Cinematography Award and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Chosen for preservation by the National Film Preservation Board, USA.
"I Am the First and the Last": Exploring Daughters of the Dust
Monday, March 29th, 3:30-4:30pm
featuring
Join us for this online event:
Note: Livestream viewers will not be able to participate in the Q&A session at the end of the presentation
Join the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library in this exploration of the first feature film directed by an African-American woman distributed theatrically in the United States, Julie Dash's ground breaking 1991 independent film, Daughters of the Dust.
Set in 1902, Daughters of the Dust tells the story of a multigenerational family in the Gullah community, also known as Geeche, who were former enslaved West Africans and their decedents, living on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina. The film focuses on the women of the Peazant family as a large number of them prepare to migrate away from the island and the only community they have ever known to move to new opportunities in the north of the mainland.
About the Presenters:
Victoria A. Smalls
As a proud Gullah Geechee native of St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Victoria serves in various capacities, as a public historian and educator, diversity leader, artist and arts advocate, and cultural preservationist. She attributes her commitments to the exploration and promotion of history, art and culture, to the rich intercultural environment steeped in Reconstruction Era and Civil Rights Era history and Gullah Geechee culture in which she was raised and nurtured.
Victoria currently works for the National Park Service as a National Park Ranger, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, in Beaufort County, SC. She currently serves as a State Commissioner, SC African American Heritage Commission; as a Maven, Art of Community-Rural SC, an initiative of the SC Arts Commission; a Leo Twiggs Arts Leadership Scholar; and is also a Fellow, with the Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Initiative at Furman University.
Dr. Rachelle Dermer
Assistant Professor in the Fitchburg State University Communications Media Department, Rachelle is an award-winning artist and a scholar who works with lens-based media. Dermer earned her B.F.A. in photography from Arizona State University in 1991, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History of Photography in the Art History Program at Boston University in 2002 and her M.F.A. in Film in 2015. She has completed a number of short films, including “I Fell,” which won an audience choice award at the Boston Bike Film Festival in 2005 and “Best Screenplay” at the 2006 NEMBA MTB Video Awards. Her short films and have been exhibited in a range of venues from film festivals to exhibitions spaces.
She completed her first documentary feature, “Commit to the Line,” in 2008. It opened at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA in a screening followed by a panel discussion. “Commit to the Line” was an Official Selection at the 2008 Rhode Island International Film Festival, receiving the First Place Providence Film Festival Award, and Big Bear Lake International Film Festival. Dermer’s work on this film won her the title of Exceptional Woman, awarded monthly on the radio program, “Exceptional Women” (WMJX, Boston) with Gay Vernon. Dermer’s second non-fiction feature film, which is an intensely personal experimental narrative.
This event was made possible by the generous funding from the Fitchburg State Office of Student Development (OSD). Access to the film was funded by the Fitchburg State University Dean's Anti-Racism Grant.