A memorial to the Gullah culture on the Sea Islands off the Georgia coast, set at a pivotal moment in 1902 on the eve of one family's emigration from the African sanctuary to the U.S. mainland. Plainly a labor of love for filmmaker Julie Dash, but a labor for the filmgoer as well -- a labor, in particular, to follow the slow, oblique, cross-stitch narrative. It packs in plenty of information, but it is not terribly informative, not terribly forthcoming, not terribly welcoming of those not already informed. The first-time director indisputably thinks in pictures (she thinks most vividly in reposeful group pictures), but not necessarily in moving pictures: there's an effect of coffee-table-book text and illustration, lopsided in favor of the text. (1991) — Duncan Shepherd
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