Julie Dash
Encyclopedia
Julie Dash is a United States
filmmaker. She directed Daughters of the Dust
, which in 1991 became the first full-length film
with general theatrical release in the United States by an African American woman. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was included in the National Film Registry
.
. Dash stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that she was turned down in a very similar systematic fashion of excluding black women from Hollywood. She was told that her film was "too different." However, remaining confident in an interview with the Detroit Free Press
, Dash states "I'm a very hopeful person and I think we can accomplish a lot through film in the '90s. We're going to see a lot of film work done by black women who have different concerns than our brothers who make films [...] We have strong statements to make because we've been silenced for so long."
"Daughters of the Dust" opened to critical acclaim. The Boston Globe called it "mesmerizing"; the Atlanta Constitution described it as "poetry in motion"; and the Village Voice said that it was "an unprecedented achievement." One woman who just finished watching a sold-out New York City premiere told New York Magazine, "It's hard to explain. It makes you feel connected to all those before you that you never knew, to parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. I'm a different person now from seeing this movie. It's a rejuvenation, a catharsis. Whatever color you are, people want to feel that sense of belonging."
The plot of "Daughters of the Dust" is centered around a family of Gullahs—blacks living on islands off the southeastern coast of the United States. "Daughters of the Dust" is also the first nationally distributed feature-length film directed by an African American woman.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times
, Dash said that she knew very little about her South Sea Island heritage until she noticed her father's "funny accent." She soon recognized it to be Gullah
, a West African-influenced English dialect preserved off the coast of Georgia, South Carolina, and northeastern Florida. As a child she was exposed to certain rituals practiced by her caretaker who would burn loose strands of Dash's hair after she combed it. She told the Village Voice that the reason for this was "so no one could get a hold of it." She also said how her caretaker would talk about "hiding [her] pictures so no one could put gopher dust on them and drive you crazy."
In 1974, Dash pursued to study film at the Leonard Davis Center for the Arts in the David Picker Film Institute and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree. While attending, Dash wrote a promotional documentary for the New York Urban Coalition called "Working Models of Success".
Dash moved to Los Angeles to attend the Center for Advanced Film Studies at the American Film Institute where she studied under filmmakers such as Jan Kadar
, William Friedkin
, and Slavko Vorkapich. She produced "Four Women", which was a dance film based on the Nina Simone
song that won a Gold Medal for Women in Film in the 1978 Miami International Film Festival. This central theme for this film because the main focus of "Daughters of the Dust".
She stated in an interview with the Village Voice, "I stopped making documentaries after discovering Toni Morrison
, Toni Cade Bambara
, and Alice Walker
. I wondered, why can't we see movies like this? I realized I needed to learn how to make narrative movies." Black women authors played a huge role in her decision to pursue creative film. In 1977 she directed Diary of an African Nun, which was an adaptation of a short story by Alice Walker at the University of California, Los Angeles
.
Dash worked as member of the Classifications and Ratings Administrations for the Motion Picture Association of America between 1978 and 1980. Dash was assigned to a special assignment screening at the Cannes International Film Festival where co-sponsored a screening of short films in the Marche du Cinema.
In 1983, Dash directed a short called "Illusions", which was part of an ongoing series. This short explored themes such as racial and sexual discrimination. "Illusions" was critically acclaimed, receiving the Black American Cinema Society Award in 1985, and was a recipient for the Black Filmmaker Foundation's Jury Prize.
Julie Dash was named a 2007 USA Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists
, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.
A Detroit Free Press contributor stated, "In all of Dash's films, black women belie the Hollywood stereotypes. Dash's black woman is a complex bundle of hope and regret, joy and pain, tenderness and fury, vulnerability and strength." Dash's films became something worth watching to critics especially when it explored the depths of African American women depictions. Dash believes that Hollywood spits the same film images back at us over and over, and she wants to do something new. She proclaims in the Free Press, "We're bombarded with the same film images over and over."
She is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha
sorority.
... aka Subway (UK: DVD box title)
Writer
... aka Subway (UK: DVD box title)
, Toni Cade Bambara
, Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman's Film, New Press 1992
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmmaker. She directed Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on the family's migration from the Sea Islands to the American mainland.Featuring an unusual narrative...
, which in 1991 became the first full-length film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
with general theatrical release in the United States by an African American woman. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was included in the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Biography
Julie Dash initially was rejected by Hollywood executives when she pitched her first full-length film, Daughters of the DustDaughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on the family's migration from the Sea Islands to the American mainland.Featuring an unusual narrative...
. Dash stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that she was turned down in a very similar systematic fashion of excluding black women from Hollywood. She was told that her film was "too different." However, remaining confident in an interview with the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
, Dash states "I'm a very hopeful person and I think we can accomplish a lot through film in the '90s. We're going to see a lot of film work done by black women who have different concerns than our brothers who make films [...] We have strong statements to make because we've been silenced for so long."
"Daughters of the Dust" opened to critical acclaim. The Boston Globe called it "mesmerizing"; the Atlanta Constitution described it as "poetry in motion"; and the Village Voice said that it was "an unprecedented achievement." One woman who just finished watching a sold-out New York City premiere told New York Magazine, "It's hard to explain. It makes you feel connected to all those before you that you never knew, to parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. I'm a different person now from seeing this movie. It's a rejuvenation, a catharsis. Whatever color you are, people want to feel that sense of belonging."
The plot of "Daughters of the Dust" is centered around a family of Gullahs—blacks living on islands off the southeastern coast of the United States. "Daughters of the Dust" is also the first nationally distributed feature-length film directed by an African American woman.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Dash said that she knew very little about her South Sea Island heritage until she noticed her father's "funny accent." She soon recognized it to be Gullah
Gullah
The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands....
, a West African-influenced English dialect preserved off the coast of Georgia, South Carolina, and northeastern Florida. As a child she was exposed to certain rituals practiced by her caretaker who would burn loose strands of Dash's hair after she combed it. She told the Village Voice that the reason for this was "so no one could get a hold of it." She also said how her caretaker would talk about "hiding [her] pictures so no one could put gopher dust on them and drive you crazy."
In 1974, Dash pursued to study film at the Leonard Davis Center for the Arts in the David Picker Film Institute and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree. While attending, Dash wrote a promotional documentary for the New York Urban Coalition called "Working Models of Success".
Dash moved to Los Angeles to attend the Center for Advanced Film Studies at the American Film Institute where she studied under filmmakers such as Jan Kadar
Ján Kadár
Ján Kadár was a Slovak film writer and director. As a filmmaker, he worked in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Canada. Most of his films were directed in tandem with Elmar Klos. The two became best known for their Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street...
, William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
, and Slavko Vorkapich. She produced "Four Women", which was a dance film based on the Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
song that won a Gold Medal for Women in Film in the 1978 Miami International Film Festival. This central theme for this film because the main focus of "Daughters of the Dust".
She stated in an interview with the Village Voice, "I stopped making documentaries after discovering Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
, Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor.- Biography :...
, and Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
. I wondered, why can't we see movies like this? I realized I needed to learn how to make narrative movies." Black women authors played a huge role in her decision to pursue creative film. In 1977 she directed Diary of an African Nun, which was an adaptation of a short story by Alice Walker at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
.
Dash worked as member of the Classifications and Ratings Administrations for the Motion Picture Association of America between 1978 and 1980. Dash was assigned to a special assignment screening at the Cannes International Film Festival where co-sponsored a screening of short films in the Marche du Cinema.
In 1983, Dash directed a short called "Illusions", which was part of an ongoing series. This short explored themes such as racial and sexual discrimination. "Illusions" was critically acclaimed, receiving the Black American Cinema Society Award in 1985, and was a recipient for the Black Filmmaker Foundation's Jury Prize.
Julie Dash was named a 2007 USA Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists
United States Artists
United States Artists is an independent nonprofit and nongovernmental philanthropic organization based in Los Angeles, California and dedicated to supporting the work of living American artists by the granting of cash awards, called USA Fellowships...
, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.
A Detroit Free Press contributor stated, "In all of Dash's films, black women belie the Hollywood stereotypes. Dash's black woman is a complex bundle of hope and regret, joy and pain, tenderness and fury, vulnerability and strength." Dash's films became something worth watching to critics especially when it explored the depths of African American women depictions. Dash believes that Hollywood spits the same film images back at us over and over, and she wants to do something new. She proclaims in the Free Press, "We're bombarded with the same film images over and over."
She is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first Greek-lettered sorority established and incorporated by African American college women. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of nine students, led by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle...
sorority.
Filmography
Director- Making Angels (2011)
- Brothers of the Borderland (2004)
- The Rosa Parks Story (2002) (TV)The Rosa Parks StoryThe Rosa Parks Story is a 2002 American television movie written by Paris Qualles and directed by Julie Dash. Angela Basset portrays Rosa Parks. It was broadcast by CBS on February 24, 2002.-Plot:...
- Love Song (2000) (TV)
- Incognito (1999) (TV)
- Funny Valentines (1999) (TV)
- SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground (1997) (TV) (segment "Sax Cantor Riff")
... aka Subway (UK: DVD box title)
- "Women: Stories of Passion" (1 episode, 1997); Grip Till It Hurts (1997) TV Episode
- Tony! Toni! Tone!Tony! Toni! Toné!Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American Soul/R&B group from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy...
- "Thinking Of You" (1997) (music videoMusic videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
) - Adriana EvansAdriana EvansAdriana Evans, is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter. She was born 1974 in San Francisco, California and was one of the first neo soul artists in the 1990's, along with Erykah Badu, D'Angelo and Maxwell...
- "Love Is All Around" (1997) (music video) - Praise House (1991)
- Daughters of the DustDaughters of the DustDaughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on the family's migration from the Sea Islands to the American mainland.Featuring an unusual narrative...
(1991) - Illusions (1982)
- Diary of an African Nun (1977)
- Four Women (1975)
- Working Models of Success (1973)
Writer
- SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground (1997) (TV) (segment "Sax Cantor Riff")
... aka Subway (UK: DVD box title)
- "Women: Stories of Passion" (1 episode, 1997); Grip Till It Hurts (1997) TV Episode (teleplay)
- Daughters of the Dust (1991)
- Illusions (1982)
Literature
Julie Dash, bell hooksBell hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins , better known by her pen name bell hooks, is an American author, feminist, and social activist....
, Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor.- Biography :...
, Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman's Film, New Press 1992