"Daughters of the Dust' at Sag Harbor Cinema

Sag Harbor Cinema’s next collaboration with the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreation Center’s (BHCCRC) will be the 4th Annual Black Film Festival Series Pt. 2 on August 24, at 6:30 p.m. The event will feature a screening of Julie Dash’s historic 1991 film “Daughters of the Dust,” a ravishing poetic portrait of Southern culture, and the first feature film by an African American woman to be distributed theatrically in the United States.

Set at the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina — former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions — struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even farther from their roots. Beautifully photographed by Arthur Jafa (“Crooklyn”) and designed by the renowned artist Kerry James Marshall, Dash’s film was partially inspired by her father’s Gullah origins, and owes its hypnotic, circular narrative style more to the writings of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison than to the canon of contemporary independent Black cinema.

Restored in 2016 by the UCLA Film Archive and the Cohen Collection on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its Sundance Film Festival premiere, “Daughters of the Dust” maintains its relevance in today’s cultural landscape — its echo easy to recognize in the work of filmmakers such as Dee Rees and Ava Du Vernay, as well as in Beyoncé’s 2016 visual album, “Lemonade.”

“I had the pleasure of seeing Julie Dash’s ‘Daughters of the Dust’ at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991,” said Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, the cinema’s founding artistic director. “Its poetic, visual and cultural uniqueness remains undiminished today. The recent restoration, by UCLA and the Cohen Collection, allowed the film to be properly finished as Ms. Dash intended, over 30 years ago. It is a joy to present it at the Cinema, even more as a collaboration with the Black Film Festival.”

“Yes, I am so pleased to be working again with the SHC,” added Bonnie Cannon, executive director of BHCCRC. “Julie Dash’s ‘Daughters of the Dust’ is a notable choice and should be seen by all.”

Tickets for the screening are available on Sag Harbor Cinema’s website, sagharborcinema.org. Sag Harbor Cinema is at 90 Main Street, Sag Harbor.