Daughters of the Dust- definitely made in the 90s.

The film Daughters of the Dust was definitely different than what I normally watch, and I don’t think I enjoyed it. I think what got to me was the length of the movie versus the amount of time shown in the movie, use of time in general, and the music.

First, the film covered what seemed like a course of one day to a week. I wasn’t really sure if there were several days covered or not. The way the film progressed, it seemed like it was recording the events of one day—the day that Yellow Mary and Viola returned to the island. There were times when I drifted because what I was watching seemed almost pointless and repetitive. I think that sounds really harsh, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it right now. The film length (about 2 hours) seemed a bit long for the amount of time shown on screen.

Second, the use of time was confusing to me. I wasn’t sure if some scenes were from the past and then some from the future. It could have been that some characters were actually from the past, but reappearing in the present, but I’m not sure. Maybe some of them did not really even exist in the family, but only to us as the audience. It was obvious, however, that the unborn child was speaking from the womb about the past, present and future.

Finally, the music was the element that tugged at me the most. It reminded me of the music in Apocalypse Now—the further you go into the depths of the jungle, the further you go insane. This movie did not make me go insane, but I felt like the film makers were definitely trying to affect the audience through the music by using the same song over and over. The audience is immersed in this culture over and over through music until they become very accustomed to it. I’m fine with the film makers trying to make this type of affect on the audience, but their choice of music annoyed me. It sounded like early 90s music mixed with mystical sounds, harps and possibly an underlying African beat. The early 90s feel didn’t do it for me—I thought of artificial plastic make-up faces, high waisted whitewashed jeans and big hair. That’s another thing! The big hair…Trula’s hair seemed to be influenced by the early 90s style—big and puffy bangs. By allowing the early 90s era to influence the film in such a way, I felt pulled out of the film because there were contradictions with what I was seeing. The film was supposed to be taking place in the late 1800s, early 1900s, right?

Okay, I totally slammed this movie, so I’ll name a one quality I did like about it. I enjoyed the way certain scenes were shot and edited. There was one time when some of the women were dancing and the movement was slowed and slightly jagged. It was a really cool effect and I really enjoyed that throughout the whole film.