The highest-placed American film of the 1990s in the most recent Sight & Sound poll of the best films ever made, Julie Dash’s debut feature was the first film directed by an African-American woman to receive a full cinema release in the US. That this milestone was reached by such an uncompromising film is another remarkable achievement.

A period piece set amongst the Gullah islanders living off the coast of Georgia in 1902, the film is told entirely in the islanders’s dialect. The influence of the film’s lush visuals has extended to Beyoncé’s promotional films for her Lemonade album (2016).

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of the American Independents season.