Filmmaker Julie Dash describes focus on women of color
As an African American woman growing up in Queens, Julie Dash did not see films about women who looked like her. As a filmmaker, she said she wants to change that, to tell the story of women of color and redefine who they ought to be in society’s eyes.
Dash explained her philosophy during a talk Dec. 9 at IU Cinema, which along with the Black Film Center/Archive sponsored Julie Dash: Daughters of the Dust 25th Anniversary. Dash’s talk was part of the cinema’s Jorgensen Lecture series.
Media School associate professor Terri Francis spoke with Dash onstage during an extended Q&A session that preceded a screening of Daughter of the Dust. Twenty-five years after its release, the film is being restored and re-released, partially because of its new popularity as the result of Lemonade, singer Beyoncè’s visual album released in April. Lemonade drew inspiration from the landmark film about three generations of Gullah women in 1902 as they get ready to migrate to the North.
“I’m loving the fact that Daughters of the Dust has been re-released to theaters. It was not on my agenda. I had no idea this was going to happen, but I am very pleased,” Dash said. “I’m now a part of the BeyHive.”
Francis said that of the nearly 500 feature-film directors made between 2014-15, only 1.3 percent were made by women of color, an even smaller percent of those black women. She said Julie Dash is the queen of that small but growing percentage. Dash’s films were the first that made her think critically about film, Francis said. They were the first films she looked at in a scholarly way.
“I’ve been looking at Julie Dash’s films since I realized you could look at films in an interesting way,” Francis said. “Daughters of the Dust in particular is part of what made me a scholarly-looker.”
But Dash’s most recent work is Standing at the Scratch Line, and the lecture began with a screening of this work Dash describes as a mood piece that details the influence of migrants on the African Methodist Episcopal church.
“It’s almost as though the film is a ritual answer to the act of migrating,” Francis said. “Especially forced migration,” Dash responded.
Many of Dash’s films focus on the culture of women, especially women of color. She documents what women have to say, what they want to do and how they do it. She said she thinks it is important that women of color see themselves in film.
The life and work of Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor are the focus of Dash’s documentary, Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl. Vertamae was an American culinary anthropologist, griot, food writer and public media broadcaster.
“What drew me to her was she’s a powerful woman,” Dash said. “What agency.”
The production book for that film is unlike any other, she said. It features recipes to give a more holistic view of who Vertamae was and what her story means to women.
Jim Gladden is a retired professor who frequents IU Cinema events. He recently became interested in cinema as an art and attended the lecture to learn more about how filmmakers create their work. He said he enjoyed learning about Dash’s process.
“Just like painting and sculpting is an art, filmmaking is an art,” Gladden said.
During audience questions, many asked about Dash’s role as a teacher. She is a distinguished professor of cinema, television and media at Morehouse College and a visiting assistant professor at the College of Charleston.
She said she loves watching students get excited about film and help breakdown stereotyped ideas of what film is supposed to be.
“I’m so excited when I see, you know, their eyes light up when we’re talking about Euzhan Palcy or even when I show them Nair’s Mississippi Masala,” Dash said. “They keep saying ‘Why haven’t I heard of this?’”
She said she tries to show a variety of films and to encourage students to not look for locations when filming. She said she emphasizes the importance of imaginative filming.
“If you’re looking for a schoolhouse to shoot something, it doesn’t have to be a schoolhouse. You can make it anything you want it to be,” Dash said. “By adding sound effects and music, you can be in any country that you want to be. You can be on the moon.”
She said she loves showing students films by women of color that fly under the radar.
“I’m always surprised why they weren’t searching for them,” Dash said. “They just assumed they didn’t exist.”
As effective as her stories and commentary on black women filmmakers are, Dash does not make films with the intention of changing the industry.
“I cannot police the world. I can only do the right thing in my world,” she said.