Julie Dash
California
USA Rockefeller Fellow, Media

Julie Dash is a writer, producer, and filmmaker. Her legendary 1992 film, Daughters of the Dust, became the first film by an African American women director to have a full-length general theatrical release in the United States. Filmed as a nonlinear story about a Gullah family on the Sea Island of Saint Helena, it is a surreal and visually stunning piece. In December 2004 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry. Although identified mostly as an independent filmmaker, Dash has also created more mainstream films such as the TV movie The Rosa Parks Story (2002), as well as music videos and a long-running film for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Museum in Ohio. She is a graduate of the film school of the University of California, Los Angeles.

More about USA Fellowships in Media

Portrait photo courtesy Arthur Jafa
Daughters of the Dust, 1992, directed by Julie Dash (actors: Alva Rodgers and Barbara O.); photo courtesy of Geechee LLC and Arthur Jafa