LOADING
Directed by Cheryl Dunye | 85 minutes | 15+ | 30th Anniversary |
ENCORE ADDED: 1:00pm Saturday, 16 May | Balam Balam Place |
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5:00pm Saturday, 16 May | Brunswick Picture House |
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This landmark of Black lesbian cinema from Cheryl Dunye proves that sometimes, you have to create your own history. 30th anniversary.
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 with a white girlfriend (Guinevere Turner, writer of American Psycho).
Balancing breezy romantic comedy with a serious inquiry into the history of Black and queer women in Hollywood (watch out for a Camille Paglia cameo), The Watermelon Woman slyly rewrites long-standing constructions of race and sexuality on-screen, introducing an important voice in American cinema.
SIMILAR: The Owls, Clerks, Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore
"“The hottest dyke sex scene ever recorded on celluloid" - Jeannine DeLombard, Philadelphia City Paper
"It’s an endlessly revealing film, with the power to surprise and invigorate audiences who are seeing it again or for the first time." - Cassie da Costa, The Criterion Collection
Country: United States
Year: 1996
Language: English