When the words A Geechee Girls Production appear on the scene in the opening credits of “Daughters of the Dust,” followed by the words Produced, Written, and Directed by Julie Dash, you can’t help but get emotional.

Julie Dash made history with “Daughters of the Dust,” as it was the first full-length feature film from an African-American woman — and Gullah Geechee one at that — to receive theatrical distribution in the United States.

Daughters of the Dust won the 1991 Festival’s Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundanc.
Ms. Dash recalls what it was like to debut her movie at the film festival in this 2012 discussion with Nelson George. https://www.sundance.org/blogs/From-the-Collection-Julie-Dash-8217-s-1991-Sundance-Award-Winning-Daughters-of-the-Dust

Visually stunning and impressionistic in style, Daughters of the Dust beautifully weaves together the fragmented history of a family and a place in 1902. It was a little place she knew well being the daughter of a father from a Gullah Geechee community in coastal South Carolina.

Julie Dash is one of a generation of African & African-American filmmakers from theUCLA Film School — brothers and sisters who have created an alternative to Hollywood films. Daughters of the Dust came out at a time when Hollywood was paying attention to Black independent films.

Distributors regarded Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991) as a foreign film. During her Regis Dialogue at the Walker, she said that many distribution agencies found it to be a compelling film, but they insisted no audiences would be interested in watching it.

Kino International decided to distribute it because the agency thought of it as an international film. Apparently, Ms. Dash liked that idea: “It was a foreign film. It’s so different from mainstream America.”

Dash’s book “Daughters of the Dust: A Novel” (1997) is a sequel to the film, set 20 years later in Harlem and the Sea Islands. I loved it as much as the movie. Unfortunately, it’s out of print because folk on Amazon are price gauging.

“Daughters of the Dust” (airing Sept. 23) continues to hold a special place in cinema history and in the hearts of moviegoers. It strongly inspired Beyonce's “Lemonade.”
https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/beyonce-lemonade-julie-dash-daughters-dust

She has also directed music videos & television movies & shows, the latter including “Queen Sugar,” “Funny Valentines,” “Incognito,” “Love Song,” & “The Rosa Parks Story.” Her “Brothers of the Borderland”  was commissioned by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Nearly 30 years later, Julie Dash is finally making her sophomore feature. The “Daughters of the Dust” filmmaker is set to helm a biopic about Angela Davis, reports Shadow and Act, with Lionsgate producing.  https://www.afi.com/news/julie-dash-on-daughters-of-the-dust-and-her-trailblazing-career/