THE WATERMELON WOMAN Cinema's Legacy

THE WATERMELON WOMAN

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.

Cheryl Dunye is a world-renowned African American director, writer and actress. She first emerged as part of the “Queer New Wave” of young filmmakers in the early 1990s. Her first feature film, THE WATERMELON WOMAN, won the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival.

Details

Country: USA

Year: 1996

Director: Cheryl Dunye

Screenwriter: Cheryl Dunye

Producers: Barry Swimar, Alexandra Juhasz

Director of Photography: Michelle Crenshaw

Editor: Annie Taylor

Production Designer: Robert Holzman

Music: Paul Shapiro

Cast/Featuring: Cheryl Dunye, Valarie Walker, Guinevere Turner, Lisa Marie Branson, Irene Dunye

Running Time (minutes): 90

Language: English

SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

The National Endowment for the Arts

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