[3][4] Jones appeared in a number of films by the new generation of young black filmmakers studying at UCLA in California.
For Haile Gerima she starred in his student short Child of Resistance (1973), playing an imprisoned activist, and his feature debut Bush Mama (1979), both made at UCLA.
After an appearance in Julie Dash's student short Diary of an African Nun (1977) she starred in Dash's first feature Daughters of the Dust (1991), where she plays Yellow Mary, an economically independent woman who returns to her home in South Carolina's Gullah community around 1900, accompanied by her female lover.
In 1999 she had a lead role in Patrice Mallard's Mute Love, which draws on a number of elements from Daughters of the Dust.
[9] In 2001 she starred in Martin Mhando and Ron Mulvihill's film Maangamizi: The Ancient One, playing Asira, an American woman doctor visiting Tanzania.