The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye (USA., 1996, 90’)
Cheryl (played by the director herself) is a black woman who is making a documentary about Fae Richards, a 1930s black actress popularly known as The Watermelon Woman. She also works in a video store. The film depicts Cheryl's lucubrations about the actress and stages her exciting love affair with Diana, a white woman, a regular customer at the store. The filmmaker's skill in bringing these two stories together makes the film a stimulating reflection on the representation of sexuality and race in cinema and an invitation to speculate on the boundaries between fiction and reality.
Cheryl (played by the director herself) is a black woman who is making a documentary about Fae Richards, a 1930s black actress: The Watermelon Woman.