The Watermelon Woman

The Watermelon Woman is one of the best WLW films of the 90s. Please watch it.

Cheryl Dunye writes, directs in stars in The Watermelon Woman. The film is semi-autobiographical. It follows the fictional Cheryl, an aspiring filmmaker. Cheryl begins a project where she searches for information on “The Watermelon Woman,” a black actress from the early days of cinema. Additionally, Cheryl has a budding relationship with Diana. Problems arise on this front because Diana is white.

The Watermelon Woman is a film that is not subtle with its inspirations. Go Fish and the films of Spike Lee are clear influences and indeed mentioned in the film. Dunye has certainly taken a lot of inspiration and learned a lot from the independent cinema of the day. What makes this movie great is that despite all its inspiration from other films, it also has its own identity. The Watermelon Woman is Dunye’s and Dunye’s alone. Her mark as an artist is on every frame of this film and her passion for film making fuels every second of its run time. It is not a mere imitator. Instead, Dunye has learned from others and taken those leanings and applied it to make a great film of her own.

The film focuses on representation in media before such a concept was a real buzzword. It is a great depiction of this topic. Throughout the film, Dunye emphasizes the voices of women, black people and queer people at a time in which those identities were minimized and erased. Furthermore, the film itself is a piece of representation. The Watermelon Woman is the first film to be directed by a black lesbian. As such, Dunye seems to have made an effort to ensure that both her blackness, womanhood and lesbian identity are intrinsically tied to the film, refusing her identity to be erased.

Despite its political commentaries and themes, The Watermelon Woman also manages to be a film with three dimensional characters. That Dunye and her friends are black lesbians is not where their characterization ends. They are full, well-rounded people who have personality traits beyond being black, queer and female. Overall, the character work in The Watermelon Woman is incredibly impressive.

The Watermelon Woman is one of the best queer films of the 90’s. While its references and subject matter place it strongly in 1996, there are also universal and timeless themes to it. The film’s discussion of representation and issues regarding intersections of race, gender and sexuality remain topical today. And additionally, the characters are good and the romantic relationship well done. The Watermelon Woman is an exceptionally strong piece of work. Cheryl Dunye showed amazing talent as a writer, director and actress. That Dunye did not break out and become a major filmmaker in the 90’s indie scene is a travesty. The Watermelon Woman is one of the strongest directorial debuts I’ve seen. Dunye certainly deserves a to be a much bigger name in the pantheon of queer filmmakers.

Overall rating: 8.9/10

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