Save the Last Dance (2001)

Kino International

Daughters of the Dust

Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Daughters of the Dust." A film that portrays the unique culture of the Gullah people by focusing on the extended Peazant family as its members struggle with the decision to leave their island and move north. On the eve of their departure, memories of their Gullah history and its African roots come rising to the surface. Winner of Cinematography at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival.

CinemaSource

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: Jan 12, 2001

Running Time: 112 mins. (V)

Country Of Origin: United States

starring: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr, Terry Kinney, Bianca Lawson, Vince Green, Garland Whitt, Elisabeth Oas, Artel Jarod Walker

director: Thomas Carter

Sara, a 17-year-old high-school student, sets her sights on being a professional ballerina, but she has to put her plans on hold when her mother is killed in a car accident and she is forced to move to her father's bleak Chicago neighborhood. Intimidated by inner-city life, she turns to the clubs for refuge, where she meets Derek, a young black man who shares her love for dancing. As their mutual respect evolves, they soon discover that peer pressure is a more formidable obstacle to romance than differences in race or class.

Julia Stiles throws away the ballet shoes and gets jiggy with Sean Patrick Thomas in this story of teenage romance set on the dance floor.

Story

Julia Stiles is Sara, a serious high schooler whose dreams of becoming a professional ballerina died with her mother in a car accident. She's shipped off from New England to live with her sloppy jazz-musician dad in Chicago's South Side and starts at a school where she's one of only a few white kids. She learns how to adapt by getting into the hip-hop…

January 9, 2001

Dance 10, Plot 0

Can a suburban white chick who lives for ballet find love with an inner-city black dude who dances to a hip-hop beat? Can Hollywood find the nerve to drag out yet another update of Romeo and Juliet? The answer to both questions is, You better believe it. The alternative would be fresh thinking, and this co-production by Paramount and MTV Films saved its inspiration for the casting.

Julia Stiles (State and Main) would make a Juliet to die for in any age. As Sara from the Illinois…

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