Join Telfair Museums and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission for a free screening of Julie Dash's 1992 film classic, "Daughters of the Dust" with remarks by Heather Hodges, Executive Director of the GGCHCC. The film tells the story of the Peazant family who are in the process of leaving their home in the Sea Islands for the mainland in 1902. Filmed near Savannah at Hunting Island, SC, the film was among the first to depict the complexity of Gullah Geechee life. The Commission encourages and supports artists who find inspiration in depicting, interpreting and thereby helping to preserve the cultural treasures of the Gullah Geechee people and their traditional land.

The film is being screened in conjunction with the January 26, 2018 opening of the museum's exhibition of the "Sea Island Series" by acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems. Considered one of America’s most influential contemporary artists, Weems became interested in the unique Gullah culture found on the Sea Islands off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina while studying folklore in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley.

This presentation at Telfair Museums is the first time Weems’ Sea Islands Series has been on view in the region in which the photographs were taken. This presentation includes 38 gelatin silver photographs, 12 text panels, and 12 ceramic plates. This exhibition also will provide an opportunity for a renewed look at how both Weems’ series and Gullah culture and communities have evolved and remained alive, now 25 years later.

"Sea Islands Series, 1991-1992" will be on view in the Jepson Center’s Kane Gallery through May 6, 2018.