Julie Dash Biography
Julie Dash is a film director, writer, and producer from the United States who is well known for her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to receive a general cinema release in the United States after she had written and directed several shorts.
How old is Julie Dash? – Age
She is 68 years old as of 22 October 2020. She was born Julie Ethel Dash in 1952 in Long Island City, New York, United States.
Julie Dash Parents – Family
Dash was born to Rhudine Henderson and Charles Edward Dash. She grew up in the Queensbridge Housing Project in Queens, New York.
Julie Dash Husband
Dash has a daughter, Nzinga, with her ex-husband, photographer, and cinematographer Arthur Jafa.
Where did Julie Dash go to college? – Education
In 1969, she went to the Studio Museum in Harlem to study. She studied psychology as an undergraduate before being admitted into the City Colleges of New York’s Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts’ film program. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Production in 1974. Dash authored the script for Working Models of Success, a documentary for the New York Urban Coalition, while still a student. She moved to Los Angeles for graduate school after graduating from CCNY.
She earned a two-year Conservatory Fellowship in Producing and Writing. At AFI Conservatory, she completed a two-year Conservatory Fellowship in Producing/Writing. Jan Kadar, William Friedkin, and Slavko Vorkapich were among the filmmakers she learned under. She went to UCLA Film School for graduate school and became part of the “Black insurgents” or L.A. Rebellion, a new generation of African and African-American filmmakers. She earned an MFA in Film and Television Production from UCLA as a graduate student. Diary of an African Nun was directed by her. It won a Director’s Guild Award for a Student Film after being screened at the Los Angeles Film Exposition.
Julie Dash L.A. Rebellion
She is one of the graduates and filmmakers knew as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the “Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers” or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to a new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School from the late 1960s to the late 1980s and created a black cinema that serves as a counterpoint to classical Hollywood cinema.
Julie Dash Career
Dash was influenced by avant-garde, Latin American, African, and Russian cinema while in film school. Her 1975 short film Four Women is based on Nina Simone’s ballad “Four Women.” Illusions (34 minutes) is a short film she created and directed that examines racial and sexual inequality in Hollywood and American society. From 1978 to 1980, she worked as a member of the Motion Picture Association of America’s Classifications and Rating Administrations on her first feature film. Daughters of the Dust is the first feature film directed by an African-American woman to be released theatrically in the United States.
With no subtitles, the film was written in the vernacular of the island settlers, creating an authentic linguistic experience. Dash’s unconventional approach to the narrative organization was unusual in a feature-length picture. She stated that she wanted to take a picture that was so deeply rooted in and genuine to the culture that it felt foreign.
The Library of Congress chose Daughters of the Dust for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2004. Its aesthetics would influence Beyoncé’s renowned 2016 video album Lemonade, which featured young women on the beach in white gowns, as seen in the film, gathered in front of an island cabin. The Cohen Media Group restored and distributed the picture for theatrical release for its 25th anniversary, commencing with the Toronto Film Festival. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center commissioned Dash to create Brothers of the Borderland in 2004. The protagonist of the film is Alice, an escaped slave whose story is a mash-up of historical events.
The protagonist of the film is Alice, an escaped slave whose story is a mash-up of historical personalities. Dash appeared in wraparounds on Turner Classic Movies in December 2016, guest-hosting and discussing hundreds of films on the channel. In 2017, she became one of the female directors for the second season of Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar on the OWN Network.
Julie Dash Movies and TV Shows
♦ 2017 – Queen Sugar
♦ 2016 – Standing at the Scratch Line
♦ 2011 – Smuggling Daydreams Into Reality
♦ 2009 – My Marlton Square
♦ 2004 – Brothers of the Borderland
♦ 2002 – The Rosa Parks Story
♦ 2000 – Love Song
♦ 1999 – Incognito
♦ 1999 – Funny Valentines
♦ 1997 – Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground
♦ 1997 – Women: Stories of Passion
♦ 1991 – Praise House
♦ 1991 – Daughters of the Dust
♦ 1982 – Illusions
♦ 1975 – Four Women
♦ 1977 – Diary of an African Nun
♦ 1973 – Working Models of Success