NYWIFT Blog

#Muse40for40: Julie Dash (2017)

We’re counting down the 40 days to NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary Muse Awards with a look at some of our favorite honorees, all women of vision and achievement who have contributed to the film and television industry. Join us as we look back at #Muse40for40, and buy your tickets for the Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10th at nywift.org/muse!


#21: Julie Dash

By Kathryn O’Kane

Director Julie Dash has written and directed five feature length narrative films including Love Song, Funny Valentines, Incognito, The Rosa Parks Story, Daughters of the Dust, as well as part of the Subway Stories: Tales From the Underground HBO anthology feature; television commercials and documentary films. In addition to her work with television films, Dash has also directed episodes of television shows such as Women: Stories of Passion and Sax Cantor Riff. Currently, Dash is one of the directors working on Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar.

In 2017 she was the inaugural recipient of NYWIFT’s new Nancy Malone Directing Award at the Muse Awards, given to an outstanding female director in film, television, and/or digital media each year.

“There’s magic in the details.” – Julie Dash at the 2017 Muse Awards

More on Julie Dash.

PUBLISHED BY

busyk

busyk Kathryn O’Kane is a director and producer with over 20 years of experience in television and advertising. She directed season 2 of the Emmy nominated series The World According to Jeff Goldblum for Disney+. She was the showrunner of the James Beard award-winning Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and she produced six seasons of the Emmy award-winning series Friday Night Tykes. Her episodes of Iconoclasts for Sundance and Oprah Presents Masterclass for OWN have won NAACP Imagine awards. Kathryn has crafted short form narratives as diverse as Mission Juno for NASA, segments of AMC’s Talking Dead, and commercial assignments for Apple, Meta, United Airlines, and SAP. Kathryn served two terms on the board of New York Women in Film and Television, championing equal pay, diversity and inclusion, and safety in the workplace. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America and Television Academy. Learn more at www.busyk.com.

View all posts by busyk

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