The Watermelon Woman

The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman
	Promotional release poster
Directed by	Cheryl Dunye
Written by	Cheryl Dunye
Produced by	Alexandra Juhasz; Barry Swimar;
Starring	Cheryl Dunye; Guinevere Turner; Camille Paglia;
Cinematography	Michelle Crenshaw
Edited by	Cheryl Dunye
Music by	Paul Shapiro
Distributed by	First Run Features
Release dates	February 1996 (Berlin International Film Festival); March 5, 1997 (U.S.);
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$300,000

The Watermelon Woman is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Cheryl Dunye. The first feature film directed by a black lesbian,^[3]^[4] it stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about Fae Richards, a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the period.

The Watermelon Woman was produced on a budget of $300,000, financed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), as well as a fundraiser, and donations from friends of Dunye. The film was partly inspired by and dedicated to the memory of such Black actresses as Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, and Butterfly McQueen.^[5]^[6] Fae Richards is a fictional character created by Dunye for the film as both an amalgamation of and stand-in for Black actresses sidelined or forgotten in film history, and as a result of the film's budget being unable to afford archive footage of real-life actresses.^[6]

The Watermelon Woman premiered at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival. The film received generally positive reviews and is considered a landmark in New Queer Cinema.^[7] It garnered controversy for a lesbian sex scene that prompted a writer for The Washington Times to question its NEA funding, which in turn led to the NEA restructuring their grant system. In 2021, The Watermelon Woman was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[8]

^ "The Watermelon Woman (1996): Crew". AllMovie. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
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^ ^a ^b Oloukoï, Chrystel (February 27, 2021). "The Watermelon Woman at 25: the Black lesbian classic that wears its brilliance lightly". BFI.org.uk. British Film Institute. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
^ Cite error: The named reference kelsey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Tartaglione, Nancy (December 14, 2021). "National Film Registry Adds Return Of The Jedi, Fellowship Of The Ring, Strangers On A Train, Sounder, WALL-E & More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 14, 2021.

[1] "The Watermelon Woman (1996): Crew". AllMovie. Retrieved December 3, 2023.

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[Oloukoï_2021-6] Oloukoï, Chrystel (February 27, 2021). "The Watermelon Woman at 25: the Black lesbian classic that wears its brilliance lightly". BFI.org.uk. British Film Institute. Retrieved July 13, 2023.

[kelsey-7] Cite error: The named reference kelsey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[8] Tartaglione, Nancy (December 14, 2021). "National Film Registry Adds Return Of The Jedi, Fellowship Of The Ring, Strangers On A Train, Sounder, WALL-E & More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 14, 2021.

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