The Watermelon Woman

The Watermelon Woman

Cheryl Dunye

US
1996
Feature Film
90’
Focus

»Black people, more specifically black women, even more specifically queer black women have been kept anonymous in the archives, unaccredited and held back from accessing a culture which carries pain but also power.«
– Christabel Samuel, The Watermelon Woman: A Retrospective Look at Black Issues

Young, black and lesbian, Cheryl works in a video store in Philadelphia and earns some extra money making professional wedding videos. While watching old movies from the 1930s and 40s, she comes across a black actress who only appears in the credits under the name »The Watermelon Woman«. Fascinated by this woman, Cheryl begins to research more about this woman’s life, but soon finds an almost complete absence of any information about black actresses of that time. Duly motivated, she sets about filling in this gap in film history, but inaccessible archives, cagey contemporary witnesses, and an affair with an attractive colleague make her life difficult.

A black lesbian woman makes a film about a black lesbian woman who wants to make a film about a black lesbian woman. What at first sounds mind-boggling is in reality a nimble, smart and highly self-reflexive mockumentary about the invisibility of black, queer film history and the essential need to be able to mirror oneself in the writing of history. (MS)

In cooperation with LAG Lesben in NRW

Film Series New Archives


Awards for ›The Watermelon Woman‹
Teddy for the Best Feature Film – Berlinale 1997 | Audience Award for an Outstanding Narrative Feature – L. A. Outfest 1996

Director / Script / Editing

Cheryl Dunye

Cinematography

Michelle Crenshaw

Music

Paul Shapiro

Cast

Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson, Cheryl Clarke u. a.

Production

Dancing Girl, Alexandra Juhasz, Barry Swimar

Contact

13th Gen

Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl Dunye was born in Liberia in 1966 and grew up in Philadelphia, USA. Her feature film début The Watermelon Woman won the 1996 Teddy Award at the Berlinale and was shown at film festivals worldwide. Dunye often mixes fiction and documentary in her films, enabling her to explore the relationship between film and cultural memory.


Films by Cheryl Dunye
Mommy Is Coming 2012 | My Baby’s Daddy 2004 | Stranger Inside 2001 | The Watermelon Woman 1996