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Re)Writing History in Julie Dash's Illusions (1983

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Re)Writing History in Julie Dash's Illusions (1983 “PEOPLE MAKE FILMS ABOUT THEMSELVES”: RACE, IDENTITY, AND (RE)WRITING HISTORY IN JULIE DASH’S ILLUSIONS (1983) AND DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (1991) by Ó Lesley Victoria Butler A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Gender Studies Department of Gender Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Memorial University of Newfoundland December 2018 St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador Abstract This thesis explores how history is (re)written alongside representations of race, place, and the “self” in Julie Dash's films Illusions (1983) and Daughters of the Dust (1991). Although Dash was the first Black American female filmmaker to have a feature film released theatrically in the United States, her work is often left out of traditional narratives of film history, signaling the continuation of racism and sexism in the mainstream film industry. Through a close analysis of Dash’s films, and her role in the Black independent film movement, I argue that Dash’s narrative approach creatively blends history, myth, and auto/biography, and thus works to reimagine, redefine, and rewrite the history of Black Americans. In an attempt to reinscribe Dash as a significant figure in U.S. history, this thesis puts Dash’s work in conversation with writers and thinkers from such fields as film studies, literature, and Black geographies, allowing for an interdisciplinary analysis of race, place, and Black feminist subjectivity in Dash's pivotal films. Keywords: Black Independent Film, Race, Representation, Self-definition, Autobiography, Narrative, Myth, Archive, L.A. Rebellion ii Acknowledgements When I began writing this thesis, I eagerly awaited the day that I would write my acknowledgements. Not just because it represented the near-completion of this project, but because I was so deeply thankful to so many people. Now that the time has arrived, I hope I can do justice to my gratitude. I would like to begin by thanking my co-supervisors, Dr. Sonja Boon and Dr. Dominique Brégent-Heald, for their patience and support along all stages of this journey. I am a more confident writer and researcher because of you both. Sonja, thank you for agreeing to meet with me all the way back in the fall of 2015. I remember feeling both nervous and hopeful at the prospect of continuing my graduate education. Thank you for giving me the chance and for teaching me so much along the way. Dominique, thank you for sparking my interest in film history back in my undergraduate days, and for continuing to inspire my cinematic curiosity over the course of these past few years. I am grateful for your guidance and so glad I had the chance to learn from you once again. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the Department of Gender Studies at Memorial University: Dr. Vicki Hallett, for her graduate course in life writing which has proven invaluable to this thesis; Dr. Carol Lynne D’Arcangelis, for her instruction on the proposal writing process; Dr. Katherine Side, for offering me the opportunity to present the early stages of my research to her GNDR2005 class; Dr. Jennifer Dyer, for her graduate course on feminist media studies which helped me think about my research in new ways; Joan Butler for her administrative expertise and for always being a friendly face in the fourth floor hallway. iii Thank you to the staff at the QEII library for their assistance, especially with locating and bringing in materials concerning the L.A. Rebellion. Writing can sometimes be a lonely venture but having the support of your peers makes a world of difference. Thank you to my classmates for lively discussions and delicious potlucks, both in class and out. Special thanks to Bridget Clarke, Jillian Ashick- Stinson, and Courtney Moddle for making me feel so welcome to the MGS program – your friendship has been foundational to these last few years. Also, to the Get Lit book club – thank you for being a shining light. To my parents, Karyn and Charlie, I am so incredibly grateful to you both. Thank you for your tireless support and for listening to me when I just needed to talk through my ideas. Special thanks to my mom for being a willing proofreader. And finally, I would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, received through Dr. Sonja Boon’s Saltwater Stories research project. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Introduction: Welcome to the Beyhive 1 People Make Films About Themselves 8 Illusions and Daughters of the Dust in Review 14 A Note on Terminology 19 Outline of Chapters 22 Chapter 1: Can’t You Tell a Story?: A Theoretical and Methodological Overture 25 Theoretical Framework 28 Life Writing and Auto/Biography 29 Postcolonialism and Black Feminism 33 Feminist Geography 36 Methodological Approaches 38 Feminist Film Analysis 39 Chapter 2: Rebels with a Cause: Race, Representation, and (Re)Writing History in Film 44 The Birth of a New Black Cinema 48 Building Our Own House 61 v Between Hood and Hollywood: Journey to the House of Self 81 Chapter 3: Shadows of the Cinematic Self: From Auteurs to Autobiographical Ancestors 90 (Absent) Subjects of the Screen 93 Autobiographical Ancestors 99 Illusions of the (Cinematic) Self 105 Outing the (Inappropriate) Other 111 Singing that Sad Song: The Safe Spaces of Sisterhood 119 Beyond the Veil 128 A Seat at the Table 132 Chapter 4: What If?: The Speculative Fictions of Space and Place 135 Autobiographical Absences 138 Parting the Veil 143 What if …: The Space of the Ellipses 160 Land and Landings 167 Roots, Rerouting, and Rewriting 187 Conclusion: A Lifetime of Stories to Tell: Towards a Future of Black Feminist Filmmaking 191 Seeing the Unseen 192 A Lifetime of Stories to Tell 197 vi The Past and Future Merge to Meet Us Here 200 Bibliography 205 vii Introduction: Welcome to the Beyhive The past and future merge to meet us here. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (Lemonade) “Welcome to the Beyhive.” These are the words Julie Dash found flashing on her phone screen in late April 2016 (Desta). It was a tweet from her daughter, N’zinga. Mystified by her daughter’s message, Dash asked, “What are you talking about?” (qtd. in Buckley). N’zinga was commenting on her mother’s most recent induction into American singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s fandom (Desta). Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade (2016) had just been released, and audiences were noticing deep visual and thematic connections to Dash’s 1991 film, Daughters of the Dust (Buckley; Desta; Murphy; Wallace). As journalist Mekado Murphy (2016) described it, “the new Beyoncé album mixed ‘Lemonade’ with a little ‘Dust.’” Written and directed by Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust chronicles three generations of a Gullah family at the turn of the century – the Peazants – as they prepare to leave their home on the Sea Islands of the Southeastern United States for the promise of ‘progress’ in the industrial north. As descendants of West Africans forced into the transatlantic slave trade, the Gullah, also known as Geechee, remained on the U.S. Sea Islands after the abolition of slavery in 1865. Due in part to their geographic isolation from the mainland, the Gullah retained many elements of their West African roots, including ritual, language, and spirituality (Alao 41-2; Dash, “Making Daughters” 6; Wardi 34). Dash effectively portrayed this fictional Gullah family at a critical point in 1 time when commitments to tradition, family, and place, were being questioned by the pull of modernity, freedom, and financial security. Cultural critic Greg Tate describes the film as “the first translation of the sensibility found in contemporary Black women’s literature to the screen” (“Homegirl Goddesses” 72). Drawing from the cultural, spiritual, and mythical histories of the Gullah, from which Dash is descended through her father, Daughters offers a poetic portrait of a family navigating the meanings of home and belonging as they find themselves torn between tradition and ‘modernity’ – between land and sea, family and fortune, past and future. The film was also praised for its portrayal of Black women in all their “shifting faces of dignity, denial, yearning, and elegance,” as Tate writes, “that give shape and meaning to Black female subjectivity” (“Homegirl Goddesses” 72).1 At the time of its release, it was considered unlike any other film to take on the “weight of black history” (Bastien). Lavish and lyrical, both visually and narratively, it offers a delicate and deep view of the unbreakable bonds between Black women (Bastien). As an unapologetic expression of Black experiences in the Diaspora – a celebration of language, aesthetic, and sensibility (Boston) – Daughters was considered a cultural landmark in U.S. film, and in 2004, was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress (Desta; Martin, “I Do Exist” 3). Dash found it surprising that, 25 years after its release, Daughters of the Dust began experiencing a renaissance. Just after Beyoncé’s ground-breaking and highly 1 While the non-capitalized form of “black,” or “African American,” are common phrasings that refer to individuals of African descent, or those existing in the Black Diaspora, I opt for the capitalized form of the term in my writing except when referring to direct quotations or book titles. I discuss this choice in terminology in more detail later in this chapter. 2 popular visual album Lemonade was released in April 2016, Dash found her website had been shut down. There was a surge in traffic causing it to crash. She also found herself flooded with notifications about “Daughters of the Dust” trending on Twitter (Desta).
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