Daughters of the Dust

As the most acclaimed creation by the filmmaker, the film focuses on the story of three women from the Peazant family, in the moment when they are about to migrate from the American Saint-Helena island to the continental and industrialised part of South Carolina - leaving their legacy behind. Thanks to its isolation, their originary black community kept many of their west african traditions, beliefs and language even after the abolition of its slave past. While the family’s mystical matriarch insists on remaining close to her ‘scraps of memory’ and ancient souls, this bond is seen as obsolete by the younger generations.

The film stands not only as a family portrait but as a portrait of a spirit of an historical American era. The film is visually impressionistic, and achieves a rhythmic and visual fusion evocative of oral traditions in its poetic and musical quality. Keeping a non-linear narrative spoken in the creoule Gullah, it asks for an attentive effort to keep pace with its dramatic intricacies.