The Watermelon Woman

When UCLA Film and Television Archive partnered with Outfest Legacy Project to restore the 1996 hallmark comedy from a talented African-American lesbian, "The Watermelon Woman" this year, they did the LGBTQ Communities a major favor.

Writer/director/star Cheryl Dunye found a fictional way to illustrate the plight of lesbian and gay film actors of color during the 1920s-50s and how lost to history so many of them are. Her character, also named Cheryl, lives in Philadelphia and has become obsessed with an unknown black actress nick-named "The Watermelon Woman," who appeared in some slight films during the 1930s, always playing a maid or a slave. The re-created film snippets cleverly highlight the kinds of films black women and men were allowed to be in, seldom reflecting the basic realities people of color lived.

But bit by bit, helped along by her pal Tamara (Valarie Walker), and a short-term romantic and sexy girlfriend, Diana (veteran lesbian actor Guinevere Turner in the only love-scene in the film), Cheryl finds out much about this beautiful actress, Fae Richardson (played in her only film role by sultry Lisa Marie Bronson) from sources as far-fetched as her own mother, Irene; Fae's surviving lover, June Walker (Cheryl Clarke); lesbian historians at an amusing non-profit C.L.I.T. (novelist Sarah Shulman); a lesbian university philosophy professor (real life Camille Paglia), and other research librarians.

Creator Dunye has a refreshing sense of humor about her fictional and (presumably) real life collaborators. The amateur filmmaker's search for this historical woman is always dignified and combines her fiction with authentic and specially created film stills and movie posters. Clearly Dunye's approach was to highlight unsung actors in a day when their contributions were denigrated and/or ignored by film studios and film historians. Her contributions to this reality were novel twenty years ago, as her film was honored at the Berlin Film Festival with their Teddy Award for Best Narrative Feature that year, and are relevant still.

If you have a chance to catch the film during this theatrical re-release (and subsequent DVD or VOD release), then do so. Even as a non-union film, it has breadth and depth, entertaining us as it educates. Thanks, Cheryl Dunye. Much appreciated.

"The Watermelon Woman"
First Run Features/1996