Julie Dash

Julie Dash (born October 22, 1952) is an American filmmaker, author and member of the L.A. Rebellion. Her Daughters of the Dust (1992) was the first full-length film by an African-American woman with general theatrical release in the United States. Dash is the film's producer, screenwriter and director. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was included in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

One of a generation of African and African-American filmmakers from the UCLA Film School who have created an alternative to Hollywood films, Dash has also made numerous music videos and television movies, the latter including Funny Valentines (1999), Incognito (1999), Love Song (2000), and The Rosa Parks Story (2002). Her Brothers of the Borderland (2004) was commissioned by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Dash's book Daughters of the Dust: A Novel (1997) is a sequel to the film, set 20 years later in Harlem and the Sea Islands.

Early life

Julie Dash was born on October 22, 1952 in Queens, New York. Her father, a Gullah from the Sea Islands of Georgia, raised her. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Dash said that she knew little about her Sea Island heritage until she noticed her father's "funny accent." She learned years later that it was Gullah, a West African-influenced English creole used and preserved by people on the islands and in the Low Country of Georgia, South Carolina, and northeastern Florida, together with a particular culture. As a child she noted certain rituals by her nanny, a Gullah woman; for instance, the woman would burn strands of Dash's hair that came loose after combing, rather than throwing them in a wastebasket. She told Dash this was "so no one could get a hold of it" and suggested "hiding [her] pictures so no one could put gopher dust on them and drive you crazy.".