Pioneering filmmaker Julie Dash, M.F.A., has joined Spelman College as the Distinguished Professor in the Arts. As Distinguished Professor, she is helping to develop the new
documentary filmmaking major in the
Department of Art & Visual Culture.
Twenty-six years ago, filmmaker Julie Dash broke through racial and gender boundaries with her Sundance award-winning film (Best Cinematography) "
Daughters of the Dust." With its release, she became the first African-American woman to have a wide theatrical release of a feature film.
In 2004, the Library of Congress placed "Daughters of the Dust" in the National Film Registry where it joins a select group of American films preserved and protected as national treasures by the Librarian of Congress. Dash is the only African-American woman with a feature film that has been inducted into the National Film Registry.
Dash is the recent recipient of numerous awards including the New York Film Critics Special Award; the 2017 Robert Smalls Merit and Achievement Award; and the Visionary Award from Women in Film, Washington DC. She served as the 2017 Time-Warner Visiting Professor at Howard University, and a Distinguished Professor of Cinema, Television and Emerging Media (CTEMS) at Morehouse College (2015-2017).
Dash recently directed multiple episodes of the award-winning dramatic series, "
Queen Sugar," Season 2, created and produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey for OWN Television.