Julie Dash is a filmmaker best known for her 1991 classic and influential film Daughters of the Dust. She was part of the L.A. Rebellion, a group of UCLA filmmakers including Dash, Haile Gerima, and Charles Burnett who made iconoclastic independent films in the late 70s and 80s. Dash’s short film Diary of an African Nun, based on an Alice Walker story, won a student award from the Directors Guild of America. Dash also directed Funny Valentines and the Rosa Parks Story. She was also part of the all-women directing roster of Ava DuVernay's drama series Queen Sugar on OWN.
Films
The Rosa Parks Story
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(2002)
In this biopic, the civil rights activist recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.
Funny Valentines
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(1999)
A woman returns to her hometown to sort out her troubled marriage and finds new happiness in the rekindling of a broken friendship with her cousin.
Daughters of the Dust
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(1991)
A languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902.
Praise House
Not currently available to stream
(1991)
Praise House combines elements of theater, dance and music based on the rhythms and rituals of Africa.
Illusions
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(1982)
This short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s.
Diary of an African Nun
Watch TrailerNot currently available to stream
(1977)
A nun reflects on her thoughts and feeling about her life.
