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Georgia's Gullah-Geechee Heritage

The Gullah-Geechees are descendants of enslaved West African people who worked on coastal plantations from North Carolina to northern Florida.

"Daughters of the Dust" Trailer

Daughters of the Dust (1991), written, directed, and produced by Julie Dash and starring Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbara-O, Kaycee Moore, Vertamae Grosvenor, Trula Hoosier, Umar Abdurrahamn, and others. Synopsis: The Peazant family struggles with a painful past and an uncertain future, as some members prepare to leave their island home to start new lives on the mainland. Set in 1902 in a Geechee community on a Georgia sea island. It was filmed on St. Helena Island, South Carolina.

Video Citation: blackandgoldone. (2008, July 2). Daughters of the Dust trailer (1991). [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/c4PEcVK6gbM?si=7_kkrg3N4xIASs5Z

"The Language You Cry In" Trailer

The Language You Cry In is a 1998 documentary directed by Alvaro Toepke and Angel Serrano. Vertamae Grosvenor is the narrator. It is the story of how a song passed down through generations connects a Georgia Geechee family to a Mende village in West Africa. The song was originally recorded in 1933 in Harris Neck Georgia by African American linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner. In the 1990s, anthropologist Joseph Opala and ethnomusicologist Cynthia Schmidt carried the song to Sierra Leone in search of its origins. Find this film in Black Studies in Video in Alexander Street, a GALILEO database

Video Citation: Folkstreamer. (2012). Language You Cry In Trailer. [Video.] YouTube. https://youtu.be/2c6ot_YAujU?si=tbqQaktht0y8KuCL

"Family Across the Sea" Trailer

Family Across the Sea (1991), is a documentary directed by Tim Carrier. A delegation of Gullah-Geechee descendants from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas visit Sierra Leone to discover the remarkable connections between their cultures. 

Video Citation: Folkstreamer. (2009). Family Across the Sea Trailer. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/KnuB10PO64k?si=f-R-qgOC0rVFVoDd

More Gullah-Geechee Videos