Boyz N the Hood and Daughters of the Dust

HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano devote this podcast episode to a couple of films released in 1991, John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood" and Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust," that marked the directorial debut for both of them. Taking place in South Central Los Angeles, "Boyz N the Hood" concerns young Black men who are making crucial decisions about how to lead their lives. This confidently directed drama is anchored by a strong cast including Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett. "Boyz N the Hood" was a studio production released by Columbia Pictures, but "Daughters of the Dust" was made as a small-budget independent film by Julie Dash, who shot the film on an island off the coast of South Carolina. Set in 1902, the story is about members of an isolated community making the decision to join what would become a great migration of Black people from the rural south to the urban north. Dash's poetic film does not have a conventional linear narrative but has been described by the director as unraveling much as an African griot would tell a story.