Julie Dash

The Library of Congress has placed Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” in the National Film Registry, her feature film joins a select group of American films preserved as National Treasures.

Julie Dash was born and raised in New York City; she has toured nationally and internationally with her work, and she has received numerous awards since embarking on her film career. With the debut of “Daughters of the Dust” in January 1992, Julie Dash became the first African American woman to have a full-length general theatrical release in the United States. “O” magazine included ‘Daughters” among it’s 50 Greatest Chick Flicks, and in 1999, the twenty-fifth Annual Newark Black Film Festival honored Julie and her film “Daughters of the Dust” as being one of the most important cinematic achievements in Black Cinema in the 20th century.

This March 2007 Ms. Dash received the Life Time Achievement Award from the Images of Black Women Film Festival in the UK. Her work as a Film Director includes “Brothers of the Borderland” for The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Museum in Ohio. Ms. Dash also directed the NAACP Image Award winning CBS Network Television Movie, “The Rosa Parks Story” the winner of The Family Television Award, The New York Christopher Award, and Angela Bassett received an Emmy Nomination for her performance as “Rosa Parks.” For the 55th Annual Directors Guild Awards, Julie Dash was nominated for her Outstanding Directorial Achievement on “The Rosa Parks Story,” and she became the first African American woman nominated in the category of Primetime Movies Made for Television at The Directors Guild of America.

Her long form, dramatic narrative films include: “Love Song,” an MTV original feature starring R&B singers Monica, Tyress and TLC’s Chili; “Incognito,” a romantic thriller staring Richard T. Jones, Vanessa Williams, Phil Morris, Ron Glass with Rodger Guenveur Smith; and the ENCORE/StarZ3 “Funny Valentines” starring Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine and C.C.H. Pounder.

She wrote and directed an episode of “Women” for ShowTime Cable Network, as well as “Sax Cantor Riff”, HBO’s “Subway Stories” for Producers Jonathan Demme and Rosie Perez.

Ms. Dash has a book published by The New Press, and a novel published by Dutton-Signett Books. She is currently working on a romantic trilogy for Dutton-Signett Books.

She has directed Music Videos with musical artists including Raphael Saadiq with Tony, Toni, Tone; Keb ‘Mo, Peabo Bryson, Adriana Evans, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason,” which was nominated for MTV’s Best Female Vocalist, 1996. Her critically acclaimed short film “Illusions”, a drama set in Hollywood 1942, won the 1989 Jury Prize for Best Film of the Decade, awarded by the Black Filmmakers Foundation.

Ms. Dash earned her M.F.A. in Film & Television production at UCLA; received her B.A. in Film Production from CCNY, and she was also a Fellow at the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, the AFI conservatory at Greystone Mansion.

When not working on her projects, Ms. Dash is a frequent lecturer at many of the leading universities across the United States.

About “The Rosa Parks Story”