Julie Dash (1952–)

Abstract

This chapter provides a biography of filmmaker Julie Dash, along with two interviews with Dash from 1986 and 1991 both originally published in The Independent Film & Video Monthly. Julie Dash confronted and successfully navigated numerous barriers to create her first feature film, Daughters of the Dust (1991), which became the first film written and directed by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical distribution. Prior to this achievement, she had worked on documentary film while living in New York and made several short films as a film student at UCLA while surrounded and supported by a group of revolutionary Black filmmakers who are now referred to as the LA Rebellion. Her vision is as unique as it is culturally significant. Dash’s creative work reflects an avant-garde approach to filmmaking, as well as an emphasis on centralizing the stories of Black women and challenging dominant ideologies surrounding Black womanhood. Most recently, Dash has directed for the television series Queen Sugar.