Cheryl Dunye’s work returns to Zienema with her groundbreaking feature film debut The Watermelon Woman. A pinnacle of the New Queer Cinema of the 1990’s, this film investigates film history, representation, racial (in)equality and lust through the eyes of a black, lesbian filmmaker with humor and wit. 

A video store employee with ambitions of becoming a director, played by Dunye herself, questions the history of film and the absence of black voices in its writing. She wonders, for example, why the names of black actresses weren’t mentioned in end credits in the earlier years of film. In a mockumentary-style film Dunye investigates by creating the fictional character of Fae Richards, the Watermelon Woman. The most entertaining yet important film class you could ever get, that still leaves plenty of room for some steamy, sapphic romance. 

– Lucas

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