The Watermelon Woman

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.