THE WATERMELON WOMAN Cinema's Legacy

Following the film, film scholar and Cinema’s Legacy guest curator Racquel Gates leads a conversation with Michael B. Gillespie, Hannah Giorgis and Terri Francis.

Aspiring filmmaker and video store clerk Cheryl, self-referentially portrayed by director/writer/editor Cheryl Dunye, is embarking on a documentary project tracing the unwritten history of an unidentified Black actress spotted in a number of films from the ‘30s and ‘40s. As she learns more about this mysterious “Watermelon Woman,” and as a budding romantic relationship with a white woman, Diana (Guinevere Turner), intensifies, Cheryl’s life begins to mirror the one she’s researching. Each candidly setting out to tell a story about Black women – described in the film as “stories that are never told” – Cheryl the character and Cheryl the filmmaker also become entwined. Employing an array of unconventional narrative devices, filmmaker Dunye blazed a trail in 1996 with this charming and engaging romance that elegantly incorporates profound insights on politics, race, sexuality and history.