Daughters of the Dust

I thought Daughters of the Dust, the story of the migration of three generations of women to mainland America from the Sea Islands, was interesting because it felt like a fiction story as well as a documentary. The presence of a fiction story was felt due to the film’s narrative structure, while a documentary sense was given off due to the film’s slower pace. The slow pace makes it seem as if its purpose is mainly informational, like a documentary, while Julie Dash uses a young girl (who is not born yet) voice to narrate. What also adds to the documentary feel is the extensive amount of scenic and landscape shots. These shots are also often reoccurring, such as the wooden figure in the river. The repetition of these images gives the viewer a true sense of the character’s surroundings that contribute to their lifestyles, as well as of the characters themselves.

-Sibba