Hey, my name is Julie Dash.
And I am a director on "Queen Sugar."
And you are watching an OWN Digital exclusive.
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Whew!
Oh, the most pivotal moment in my journey
to becoming a director I believe,
happened on my first trip to the Cannes Film Festival
in the South of France.
Because at Cannes-- this was early on.
This was like 1980--
prior to that, we'd been hearing you know,
Hollywood is not doing Black films or films with content
around people from the African diaspora
because it would not sell in Europe.
So at Cannes and the Munich Film Festival
and all the film festivals that I started going to at the time,
I learned that that, in fact, was not true.
There were-- there was plenty of Black content.
There was-- there were content distributors there
and exhibitors who were looking to us to tell them what
we had in terms of content.
So I learned on my international film festival journeys
that the whole world was waiting to hear and see our stories.
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I believe I was lecturing at Spelman College.
I teach film there.
And I was very much aware of the "Queen Sugar" series
because you know, I was watching the first season.
So I directed two episodes in the second season.
So when I got the call from Paul Gauguin
through Ava that I was going to be directing two episodes,
I was like, yeah!
When do I leave?
When do I catch the first train smoking out of here?
Ready to do it.
It was very exciting, very fulfilling.
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It is so very difficult to choose
what is my favorite scene because there's so many.
I mean, everything that I did would
Rutina, or Kofi, or Aunt Vi, even with Hollywood,
it was so--
everything was so emotional, impactful, and so
important and so relevant.
I love the way the stories have so much meaning.
And so I guess, one of the Zika scenes with Nova
was just like-- it was so timely because Zika
was you know, threatening the entire world at that time.
And we had a wonderful scene where
she is you know, going through these dilemmas about,
is she making too much of her reporting on the Zika epidemic
and its impact on the New Orleans area?
Another scene that was just like really,
really I guess, gut wrenching and all of that
was when Charley's mother comes to visit for the first time.
And it's the first time that we, as an audience,
learned that Charley's mother is in fact, white.
And they have been estranged for some time due to you know,
because the mother didn't show up for the funeral
for Charley's father.
And then the ending of, I think it was the final scene where
the mother and daughter are wrapped in one another's arms,
and they're sharing their pain, their trauma, their--
their journey-- it was just very, very
powerful, very, very powerful.
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Well, I tell you what.
"Queen Sugar," through the Ava effect,
was actually the first episodic that I ever
directed in my entire career.
It was the first.
And it's been followed by many others.
But that was actually a first.
That was my breakthrough, directing "Queen Sugar."
Afterwards, of course, I was able to do shows for CBS, Hulu.
I think the most important thing is this.
Ava affording me the opportunity to break into a new platform.
And that was episodic directing.
Before that, I was doing long-form, movies-of-the-week
type of thing.
And you know-- and of course, "Daughters of the Dust."
And-- but Ava gave me the opportunity to break
into episodic TV directing.
And that's-- that's no small deal.
That's a big deal.
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As a director, I have certainly noticed
a shift in the whole movie industry since--
and television, episodic-- since "Queen Sugar"
first aired in 2016.
Prior to "Queen Sugar," it was-- there was just like a handful,
maybe five Black women directing episodics.
Now, I mean, multiple hands.
We're all over the place.
Ava opened the door for us.
Ava changed-- and I've said this many times--
Ava changed in like a two to three-year period
what hadn't changed in Hollywood in over 100 years.
"Queen Sugar" is-- was a watershed moment,
a watershed moment for--
for the history, the development, the inspiration,
and for so much for people, of women,
let's say women, not just people, women of the diaspora,
as well as women of color.
So many, as we call them, sugar babies--
there's so many sugar babies now since 2016
that it was-- there's been a major shift in the way I
guess, Hollywood and the networks
and major streamers look at women as directors
since "Queen Sugar."
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I think at this point in my career,
and my journey as a filmmaker, is the mentoring of emerging
filmmakers and teaching, and just being a part of all
that's new, the next generation of women
telling stories about us.
Thank you, "Queen Sugar."
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