African American filmmaker Julie Dash studied film at the Leonard Davis Center for the Arts in the David Picker Film Institute and at the Center for Advanced Film Studies at the American Film Institute.

Her first passion was documentary film, but after discovering the literature of Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambar, and Alice Walker, she decided to embark on making narrative movies. Dash made history when she became the first African American female director to gain national distribution for a feature-length film with Daughters of the Dust (1991).

Since Daughters, Dash has directed several TV movies, including The Rosa Parks Story (2002), Love Song (2000), Incognito (1999), and Funny Valentines (1999).

Dash also directed a segment of HBO’s Subway Stories (1997), a collection of stories based on the real experiences of New York subway riders. Dash wrote and directed the touching short called Sax, Cantor, Riff, in which a young woman grieves in song over her mother’s imminent death.

Watch Sax, Cantor, Riff below:

Related: 10 Black Female Directors You Should Know

7 COMMENTS

  1. Sad and emotional story but she has a beautiful voice. I would ride the subway everyday if I could hear her sing.

  2. I enjoyed Daughters of the Dust. It’s different from most movies but if you give it a chance you can really get something out of it.

  3. where do i know that girl from? some robert de niro film? anyway, its touching, the end wasn’t that good. but i like it overall.

  4. Julie is who she is. I couldn’t be more proud of a black woman.
    But let’s get real. Who’s seen Daughters of the Dust? I tried but I couldn’t. And this short film by her, I mean shizzle, what was that about? Can’t allow any movie, short or long, to be entirely carried by a super talented singer on the phone singing to her dying mother? Isn’t that cheap?

  5. Yo! Yo… that girl in the movie is hot hot hot hot! Háha´, 50 cent would say. I like the short story, a whole lot, it’s a musical, I mean what else do you expect.
    Well done Julie, I still look out for ya!

  6. All i can say is Julie is a cutie. I am always hypnotized by her films! i know it probably weird to put it like that but i can’t help it. The lady and her movies have an effect on me.

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