Directed by Julie Dash (USA, 1991, 113 min.) Gullah and English with English subtitles.

Filmmaker Julie Dash’s seminal work captures a moment of change for the Gullah—a community of formerly enslaved people from West Africa who settled along coastal South Carolina and adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions. Some of the younger women long to move to the mainland and experience life outside their insular society, while the Gullah elders hope their descendants stay and carry on the culture they worked so hard to preserve. Dash’s elliptical narrative unspools as a series of impressions—moments of conflict and tenderness between the Gullah women, fluttering lace, and parasols glowing in the setting sun. These images of languid femininity have influenced countless subsequent works, from Beyoncé’s Lemonade to the works of Sofia Coppola.