The Watermelon Woman
Cheryl Dunye / US, 1996 / 84 min.
A meta reflection on the absence of Black lesbian actors in early cinema. That might sound like a dry, academic exercise – but dyed-in-the-wool director Cheryl Dunye proves the opposite in this layered, witty mockumentary that makes inventive use of archival material. Fiction really can reveal reality, it seems.
Dunye plays herself as ‘Cheryl’, a video store employee with dreams of directing. Cheryl’s attention is drawn to the history of film and the way this has been written. Why, for example, were the names of Black actresses never credited in the early years of cinema? Are they really all but absent from the film archives? Cheryl – herself a young, Black lesbian – decides to find out.
In Eye and in national cinemas.
This is part of
Special screenings
Details
Director
Cheryl Dunye
Production year
1996
Country
US
Original title
The Watermelon Woman
Length
84 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NLD
Format
DCP
Part of
Previously Unreleased
Screened at prominent national and international festivals, yet never released in Dutch cinemas. Quite unjustly so, Eye Filmmuseum thinks, and so it has once again brought an exceptional selection of films from international festivals to the Netherlands.
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