Nice convo with Julie Dash posted today, courtesy of Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal on his Left of Black series. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the release of Dash’s ground-breaking film Daughters of the Dust.

In the interview, Ms Dash talks about her early days as a college student studying cinema, the L.A. Rebellion movement, the making of Daughters Of The Dust, what she’s been working on since that seminal film, her take on Tyler Perry’s success, what she would have done with For Colored Girls, and more…

She also mentions that she’s currently developing 2 projects; first, a mini series on the little-known 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, which was the only all African American, all female battalion during World War II, made up of 855 women who were primarily responsible for redirecting mail to/from several million people – members of the U.S. armed forces in Europe (the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, civilians and Red Cross workers); secondly, she says she’s working on a cyber thriller called Cipher, centered on a young African American woman who’s an encryption specialist, who “holds the keys to our digital liberty.” Mark Anthony Neal then jokingly asks her if she’s reached out to Zoe Saldana to star in the latter project, and she laughs and says “we have plans on doing that; we love her.“

Obviously, whether any of these projects will see the light of day is another matter. We’ll be on alert though. We’re also going to try to get Julie Dash for an interview with S&A 🙂

Watch the insightful 30-minute conversation below.