Julie Dash

CTL-E-6287 · Person · other · 1952–present; L.A. Rebellion era to present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07474 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6287.

Julie Dash is an American filmmaker, author and producer associated with the L.A. Rebellion, the generation of African and African American filmmakers who studied at UCLA and built an alternative to Hollywood cinema. Born in Queens, New York, she studied at City College of New York and the AFI Conservatory before earning an MFA in film and television production from UCLA in 1985. Her early shorts — Four Women (1975), Diary of an African Nun (1977) and Illusions (1982), on which UCLA credits her as director, producer, writer and editor — centred Black women's interior lives and Hollywood's racial illusions. Her debut feature, Daughters of the Dust (1991), about a Gullah Geechee family on the Sea Islands in 1902 weighing migration to the mainland, became the first feature by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical release in the United States, and entered the National Film Registry in 2004. Dash later directed for television, including The Rosa Parks Story (2002) and episodes of Queen Sugar and Women of the Movement in 2021–2022, extending her historical, women-centred storytelling across formats and into museum and teaching work at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

The record

• Also known as: Julie Ethel Dash

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (The Closer — 747 Program, Wave 13 final packet; a gap-closing packet built from the earlier packets' documented blocked edges). Gate A (2026-10-16): CLEAR — hand-checked against the live graph (3,910 entities): no Julie Dash entity, alias, or variant homed; Daughters of the Dust (CTL-E-6173) exists without its director endpoint. ID CTL-E-6287 free at staging. Subtype note: the research packet proposed "Filmmaker," which is not a legal Person subtype in schema.json; the record is typed Person/other per the graph's filmmaker precedent (John Singleton, CTL-E-6193). Supply: 747 blocked-edge harvest — Scan Tail Wave 5 documented the Daughters of the Dust (CTL-E-6173) authored_by edge as blocked on this missing endpoint. SCOPE GATE: national-canon gap-fix endpoint harvested from a documented blocked edge in a merged packet; staged to close that edge, per the Closer brief. Vital status: LIVING — verified from a dated recent source: the Alliance of Women Film Journalists' February 2026 Spotlight (published 2026-01-31) is built on an exclusive interview with Dash speaking in the present tense; the Walker Art Center also listed her film for screenings on 20 May and 11 June 2026. STATISTICS (counted, sourced, dated 2026-10-16): Born October 22, 1952, Queens, New York (BlackPast; Wikipedia — the full date agrees in both opened sources; Walker Art Center and CCCB give New York City only). MFA in film and television production, UCLA, 1985 (Walker; BlackPast; UCLA Newsroom). Early shorts counted: 3 — Four Women (1975), Diary of an African Nun (1977), Illusions (1982) (Walker). Daughters of the Dust (1991): debut feature; first film by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical release in the United States (Walker; CCCB). National Film Registry: 2 Dash films — Daughters of the Dust inducted 2004 (Library of Congress listing); Illusions added 2020 (AWFJ). Teaching post: Diana King Endowed Professor, Department of Art & Visual Culture, Spelman College (BlackPast; Wikipedia; AWFJ). MEDIA: map N/A (person); photo HELD with named candidate; chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6287-julie-dash.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map); audio HELD. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Referenced by

• Daughters of the Dust — authored by → this record
• University of California, Los Angeles — has alumnus → this record

Sources

• Walker Art Center, Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash (accessed 2026-10-16) — filmmaker/author/producer from New York City; MFA from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1985; the 3 named shorts with years; Daughters of the Dust (1991, 112 min) as first film by an African American woman to receive a general U.S. theatrical release; National Film Registry 2004; 2026 Walker Cinema screenings — https://www.walkerart.org/whats-on/daughters-of-the-dust-by-julie-dash/ (primary source · build store)
• BlackPast.org, Julie Dash (1952– ) (accessed 2026-10-16) — born 22 October 1952 in Queens, New York; B.A. City College of New York 1974; AFI fellowship; MFA at UCLA in 1985; The Rosa Parks Story (CBS); Queen Sugar season two; Spelman professorship — https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/dash-julie-1952/ (build store)
• CCCB, Julie Dash (participant biography, sourced to UCLA Film & Television Archive) (accessed 2026-10-16) — born in New York City; AFI and UCLA study; Illusions (1982); Daughters of the Dust (1991) as first feature and first by an African American woman to receive a general U.S. theatrical release; National Film Registry 2004 — https://www.cccb.org/en/w/participants/julie-dash (build store)
• Library of Congress, Complete National Film Registry Listing (accessed 2026-10-16) — Daughters of the Dust — year of release 1991, year inducted 2004 — https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ (build store)
• UCLA Film & Television Archive, Illusions (accessed 2026-10-16) — Illusions credits listing Julie Dash as Director, Producer, Writer, Editor — https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/collections/in-the-life/illusions/ (build store)
• UCLA Newsroom, Rise Again: The L.A. Rebellion (accessed 2026-10-16) — Dash as an L.A. Rebellion filmmaker; 'Julie Dash M.F.A. '85 (Daughters of the Dust)' — https://newsroom.ucla.edu/magazine/la-rebellion-charles-burnett-jamaa-fanaka (build store)
• Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Spotlight February 2026: Julie Dash (accessed 2026-10-16) — exclusive interview with Dash in her own present-tense voice in 2026 (vital status); Illusions added to the National Film Registry in 2020; teaching at Spelman College — https://awfj.org/blog/2026/01/31/spotlight-february-2026-julie-dash-trailblazing-filmmaker/ (build store)
• Wikipedia, Julie Dash (accessed 2026-10-16) — full name Julie Ethel Dash; born 22 October 1952, Queens, New York City; MFA 1985 at UCLA; L.A. Rebellion membership; television directing 2021–2022; years active 1973–present — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Dash (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6287 · Combined Graph record U-07474 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 8 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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