Illusions
Julie Dash
The time is 1942, a year after Pearl Harbor; the place is National Studios, a fictitious Hollywood motion picture studio. Mignon Duprée, a Black woman studio executive who appears to be white and Ester Jeeter, an African American woman who is the singing voice for a white Hollywood star are forced to come to grips with a society that perpetuates false images as status quo. Illusions follows Mignon’s dilemma, Ester’s struggle and the use of cinema in wartime Hollywood: three illusions in conflict with reality.
Julie Dash
Julie Dash is an icon of Black independent cinema. Her films examine questions of justice, diasporic identities and the biographies of Black women. With Daughters of the Dust, she became the first African-American woman to have a nationwide theatrical release in the US in 1991. She has taught at various universities and moderated the Combahee Experiment at Princeton University with Angela Davis.
Films by Julie Dash (selection)
The Rosa Parks Story 2002 | Funny Valentines 1999 | Daughters of the Dust 1991 |
Praise House 1991 | The Diary of an African Nun 1975
Awards for Illusions:
Jury Prize for Best Film of the Decade awarded by the Black Filmmakers Foundation
