Pinkett Smith's debut might now be noticed

Julie Dash's brilliant, poetic 1991 breakthrough film Daughters of the Dust may have inspired more African American women to try their hand at directing - and more film execs to trust their vision, not to mention their skill - but sadly, their numbers have hardly swelled.

Let's hope actor-turned-writer-director Jada Pinkett Smith can turn things around with her daring, complex feature debut, The Human Contract, due on DVD from Sony on June 30 (www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/; $24.96; rated R).

So far, the signs haven't been too encouraging: Although the film did well when it premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival in November, it wasn't picked up theatrically despite Smith's Hollywood mojo as half of the power couple anchored by Will Smith.

Smith's straight-to-DVD feature is far better than half the first-run fare at the neighborhood multiplex.

Part classic Hollywood high melodrama, part Euro-Art Film, Contract is a complex, character-driven psychosexual thriller about corporate exec Julian Wright, played by Jason Clarke from Showtime's Brotherhood, whose life takes a strange, erotic, liberating, if potentially dangerous, turn when he meets Michael Reed (Paz Vega in a smoldering turn), a sexually liberated woman whose willpower and brains more than match his own.

It helps that Smith peopled her supporting cast with some great actors, including Joanna Cassidy, T.J. Thyne, and two Brits, the Scotland-born Steven Brand and the sadly underappreciated Idris Elba.

Other DVDs of note

Dakota Fanning's sister Elle turns in a strong performance in Phoebe in Wonderland, due Tuesday from Image Entertainment (www.image-entertainment.com; $27.98; PG-13). Costarring Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, and Bill Pullman, it's about a girl with Tourette's syndrome who uses her imagination and fascination with Alice in Wonderland to escape her harsh reality.

New German Cinema auteur Doris Drrie follows up How to Cook Your Life, her documentary about Zen chef Ed Brown, with Cherry Blossoms from Strand Releasing (www.strandreleasing.com; $24.99; not rated). It's a beautifully shot, intense drama about a long-married German couple who are about to be separated forever.