Cauleen Smith (Born September 25, 1967) is an American born filmmaker and professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. She is best known for her experimental works that address the African American identity, specifically the issues facing black women today. Her rise into the spotlight first occurred with her much acclaimed feature film Drylongso earning her national recognition as a filmmaker. Her film style reflects the influence of her college mentors Angela Davis, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Lynn Hershman Leeson. Cauleen currently resides in Chicago and is working multiple projects that explore the life of renowned jazz musician Sun Ra.

Cauleen is a player in the movement of Afrofuturism, an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past.

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