xtrasSidewalk Film 101: The Watermelon Woman (1996)
The wry, incisive debut feature by Cheryl Dunye gave cinema something bracingly new and groundbreaking: a vibrant representation of Black lesbian identity by a Black lesbian filmmaker. Dunye stars as Cheryl, a video-store clerk and aspiring director whose interest in forgotten Black actresses leads her to investigate an obscure 1930s performer known as the Watermelon Woman, whose story proves to have surprising resonances with Cheryl’s own life as she navigates a new relationship.
- Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson, Cheryl Clarke, Irene Dunye
- Cheryl Dunye
- Cheryl Dunye
- Alexandra Juhasz
- 1997
- United States of America
- 85 minutes
- Not Rated
Welcome to another year of the monthly Sidewalk Film 101 series at the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema. Along with supplemental readings and resources to contextualize each featured film, each screening will include a special introduction.
About Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema
We produce the nationally recognized Sidewalk Film Festival; organize a wide variety of educational programs for filmmakers and hold other events that create interest in and enthusiasm for independent film. To expand on this work and better serve our mission we have opened the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, a two-screen independent movie theater in the heart of Birmingham’s historic theatre district.