Cohen Media Group has announced that their branch Cohen Film Collection has acquired rights to and will release a new restoration of Julie Dash’s landmark film “Daughters of the Dust.” They plan to release the remastered version theatrically this fall as part of the reopening of the New York art house venue Quad Cinema with a national roll out and a new Blu-ray version to follow. It will also screen at the Cannes Film Market next month.
“Daughters of the Dust,” written and directed by Julie Dash and released in 1991, was the first full-length film by an African-American woman with general theatrical release in the United States. Utilizing an unconventional narrative device, the story is told from the perspective of a character named Unborn Child, and was praised for its use of music and stunning visual imagery.
Dash’s masterpiece makes the argument for creating a legacy of women’s work that should be taught in film schools. Oftentimes, film students learn from a cannon of films made by male filmmakers. It’s about time that a steady legacy of films made by women made its way into the regular consumption of historically important films, and “Daughters of the Dust” is a perfect inclusion.
Set at the turn of the 20th century on the isolated Sea Islands off the South Carolina coast, “Daughters of the Dust” is a “mosaic of storytelling centering on the women of an extended family of Gullah people — descendants of slaves who have preserved the traditions, beliefs and language of their West African ancestors,” its official CMG synopsis reads. “But things are about to change drastically and irrevocably as members of the family — each with a vividly etched story line — prepare to leave this seaside paradise and all they’ve ever known to migrate to the industrialized North. The film is narrated by a child not yet born, and long-dead ancestors seem to be as much a part of the story as the living.”
“I’m excited about the restoration of ‘Daughters of the Dust’ being made available to the public and delighted to have the opportunity to engage with a new generation of people who have never seen the film,” Dash said in a statement.
As for the restoration, skin tone was an important issue. “The film had not been properly color graded when it was originally released,” Cohen Film’s Tim Lanza told The New York Times. “We worked with the cinematographer [Arthur Jafa] to approve the color grade we had done. The big issue for Julie and A.J. was capturing the variety of African-American skin tones. That was not something presented in the first version available.”
The premiere of the restoration will take place May 20 at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Dash will be in attendance.
