Julie Dash

Julie Dash (she/her) is one of the most prominent African American filmmakers. She studied film at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), where she was part of the renowned generation of African and African American students known as the L.A. Rebellion, alongside directors such as Charles Burnett and Haile Gerima. After gaining recognition with award-winning short films like The Diary of the African Nun (1977) and Illusions (1982), Julie Dash became the first African American woman director to have her feature film, Daughters of the Dust, receive cinematic distribution across the United States. She also published a novel of the same name based on the film. Since the late 1990s, she has primarily worked in television, directing numerous music videos as well. Dash has lectured at several prestigious American universities, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton.