Directing

Julie Dash

Born October 22, 1952 · Long Island City, New York, USA (age 73)

Julie Ethel Dash (born October 22, 1952) is an American film director, writer and producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. After she had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters o…

Known For

The Rosa Parks Story

The Rosa Parks Story · 2002

The Rosa Parks Story

MovieDramaHistory

A seamstress recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

Incognito

Incognito · 1999

MovieDramaThriller

A young socialite hires a bodyguard to protect her when an ex-convict begins stalking her.

Subway Stories

Subway Stories · 1997

MovieTV MovieComedy

An anthology of 10 stories depicting real-life incidents of subway riders in New York City, which range from compassion and love to violence and loss.

Daughters of the Dust

Daughters of the Dust · 1991

Daughters of the Dust

MovieDramaRomance

In 1902, a Gullah family on the Sea Islands off South Carolina decide whether to migrate to the mainland, risking their unique cultural heritage.

Wanda Sykes: Legacy

Wanda Sykes: Legacy · 2026

Wanda Sykes: Legacy

Wanda Sykes returns to her alma mater with a fearlessly funny takedown of everything from the state of the world to the cultural clash over washcloths.

Praise House

Praise House · 1991

MovieDramaMusic

“Draw or Die” is the divine imperative received by the painter, Hannah, who is being nurtured by her Grandmother, but controlled by her pragmatic mother. When her Granny spirit shouts this command to Hannah, she closes a celebration of personal visions in a dance piece that is close to visionary in itself.

Funny Valentines

Funny Valentines · 1999

Funny Valentines

A woman returns to her home town to sort out her troubled marriage and finds new happiness in the rekindling of a broken friendship with her cousin.

My Brother's Wedding

My Brother's Wedding · 1985

My Brother's Wedding

A young African-American man, living in Los Angeles without direction in his life, reluctantly agrees to be the best man for his brother, an upwardly mobile lawyer.

Filmography

Sort

The Rosa Parks Story

The Rosa Parks Story · 2002

The Rosa Parks Story

MovieDramaHistory

A seamstress recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

Director

Incognito

Incognito · 1999

MovieDramaThriller

A young socialite hires a bodyguard to protect her when an ex-convict begins stalking her.

Director

Subway Stories

Subway Stories · 1997

MovieTV MovieComedy

An anthology of 10 stories depicting real-life incidents of subway riders in New York City, which range from compassion and love to violence and loss.

Director

Daughters of the Dust

Daughters of the Dust · 1991

Daughters of the Dust

MovieDramaRomance

In 1902, a Gullah family on the Sea Islands off South Carolina decide whether to migrate to the mainland, risking their unique cultural heritage.

Director

Wanda Sykes: Legacy

Wanda Sykes: Legacy · 2026

Wanda Sykes: Legacy

Wanda Sykes returns to her alma mater with a fearlessly funny takedown of everything from the state of the world to the cultural clash over washcloths.

Director

Praise House

Praise House · 1991

MovieDramaMusic

“Draw or Die” is the divine imperative received by the painter, Hannah, who is being nurtured by her Grandmother, but controlled by her pragmatic mother. When her Granny spirit shouts this command to Hannah, she closes a celebration of personal visions in a dance piece that is close to visionary in itself.

Director

Funny Valentines

Funny Valentines · 1999

Funny Valentines

A woman returns to her home town to sort out her troubled marriage and finds new happiness in the rekindling of a broken friendship with her cousin.

Director

My Brother's Wedding

My Brother's Wedding · 1985

My Brother's Wedding

A young African-American man, living in Los Angeles without direction in his life, reluctantly agrees to be the best man for his brother, an upwardly mobile lawyer.

First Assistant Director

A Different Image

A Different Image · 1982

A Different Image

An African American woman living away from her family in Los Angeles yearns to be recognized for more than her physical attributes. In cultivating the friendship of a male office mate, she aspires to a relationship where romance is not a factor, seeking someone who can "see her as she is," rather than see only what he wants to see. (UCLA Film & Television Archive)

Continuity

HomeGoing

HomeGoing · 2025

HomeGoing is a collaborative musical tribute by filmmaker Julie Dash and operatic bass-baritone Davóne Tines, created in remembrance of the Emanuel Nine. Through voice, image and ritual, the film honors the lives taken during Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Tines’ performance becomes an offering of grief and resilience, while Dash’s restrained visual language creates a space for reflection, remembrance and dignity.

Director

Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA

Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA · 2016

Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA

MovieDocumentary

Part of a multi-platform project highlighted by an hour long documentary about black filmmakers who worked and studied at UCLA between 1965 and the 1990s.

Herslef

Illusions

Illusions · 1982

A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions. The short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s. It calls attention to the lack of African Americans in the film industry during that era.

Producer

Standing at the Scratch Line

Standing at the Scratch Line · 2016

Standing at the Scratch Line

MovieDocumentary

Recounts the impact of migrants on the African Methodist Episcopal church. Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel AME, the nation’s oldest African-American church, served as a local community partner, as well as Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, SC, the site of the 2015 mass shooting.

Writer

Four Women

Four Women · 1975

MovieDramaMusic

An imaginatively choreographed dance interpretation of the ballad by Nina Simone explores four common stereotypes of Black women.

Director

Love Song

Love Song · 2000

MovieRomanceDrama

A privileged, black college student with a fiance falls in love with a white musician she meets on her 21st birthday.

Director

Diary of an African Nun

Diary of an African Nun · 1977

Diary of an African Nun

An Ugandan nun is consumed by fear and doubt about her decision to take the solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Her anguish intensifies night after night as she lies on a hard bed in her small room at the convent and listens to the rhythmic, beckoning drums of her village.

Editor

Relatives

Relatives · 1989

Ishmael Huston-Jones physically carries his mother, Pauline Jones, into the improvisational dance space. While she dyes eggs and speaks about family history, he improvises a rhythmic dance-counterpoint to her speech.

Director

Seeking: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story

Seeking: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story · 2023

Seeking: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story

A non-linear coming-of-age story about Gullah Geechee children who set off into the dark of night to prove their spiritual maturity by embarking upon solo journeys in the sea island woods for self-reflection and discovery.

Director

American Playhouse

American Playhouse · 1982

American Playhouse

SeriesDramaComedy

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

Director

Queen Sugar

Queen Sugar · 2016

Two sisters, Nova Bordelon and Charley Bordelon, with her teenage son Micah moves to the heart of Louisiana to claim an inheritance from her recently departed father - an 800-acre sugarcane farm.

Director

Women: Stories of Passion

Women: Stories of Passion · 1996

Women: Stories of Passion

Women: Stories of Passion is a dramatic series that aired on the American cable television network Showtime and distributed by Playboy Entertainment overseas. The episodes were based on stories of love, and passion from a woman's point of view.

Writer