Cinema of empathy

Portland State will host two special screenings with director Julie Dash Monday, May 21, and Wednesday, May 23.

The events will begin with showings of the films Daughters of the Dust (1991) and The Rosa Parks Story (2002)—playing Monday and Wednesday, respectively—and will be followed immediately with a question-and-answer session with Dash herself.

“For over 20 years, Dash has been recognized as a groundbreaking director,” said Sue Brower, professor in the School of Fine and Performing Arts and coordinator for the events. “She was the first African American woman—of whom there are still only a handful—to write, direct and produce a feature-length film. As an artist, she has succeeded in an industry that continues to be dominated by white men.”

A pioneer in the film industry, Dash has primarily narrowed her scope to the history and stories of African American women.

She made her filmmaking debut with Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film directed by an African American woman to have a general theater release. In 1999, the 25th Annual Newark Black Film Festival honored Dash and Daughters as one of the most momentous cinematic achievements in black cinema in the 20th century.

Her more recent film, The Rosa Parks Story, won the Family Television Award, the New York Christopher Award and made Dash the first African American woman to be nominated for the Director’s Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.

“She is a skilled director who can successfully direct a mainstream biopic such as The Rosa Parks Story, but I think the uniqueness of her work is in Daughters, her short films, such as Illusions or her piece in the HBO film Subway Stories that subvert conventions of film narrative,” Brower said. “Dash tells stories that are usually ignored—of women, of racial minorities and of the poor…and she finds the joy and courage and passion in their lives.”

Daughters of the Dust follows an extended African American family living in the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia in 1902. As some of the family decides to resettle in the north, the whole unit gathers for a final picnic, where conflict arises.

“[The things that make Dash unique are] the same elements that led Hollywood execs to dismiss Daughters of the Dust as ‘unmarketable.’ Her films have an authentic sense of place, her protagonists are usually strong African American women and her storytelling style is often nonlinear,” Brower said. “Instead of the masculine, patriarchal perspective of most Hollywood films, Dash’s films employ a female, feminist sensibility.”

The Rosa Parks Story will be shown for free in Lincoln Hall, while Daughters of the Dust will be playing at Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. Tickets for Daughters are available for $4.

“Dash isn’t just a filmmaker,” Brower continued. “She’s an artist who had to beat the odds and crash a lot of barriers to become a filmmaker and tell the stories she wanted to tell. I think she’s an inspiration.”