A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
- Awards
- 4 wins
Cheryl Clarke
- June Walker
- (as Cheryl Clark)
Kat L Robertson
- Yvette
- (as a different name)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to writer/director Cheryl Dunye, much about the character she plays in the film is autobiographical, but the historical references to the Watermelon Woman are fictional: "The Watermelon Woman came from the real lack of any information about the lesbian and film history of African-American women. Since it wasn't happening, I invented it."
- GoofsCheryl (Cheryl Dunye) appears to make a slight fluff of her lines during a dinner scene with Diana, Tamara and Stacey, saying: "Anyway, Diana, if you came to Philadelphia to shape... escape the cold Chicago winters..."
However, as the dinner conversation is deliberately uncomfortable, this is possibly intended.
- Crazy creditsThe film, which seems to be a documentary about Cheryl's search for the obscure actress who inspired her, ends with these printed words: "Sometimes you have to create your own history. The Watermelon Woman is fiction. Cheryl Dunye, 1996"
- Alternate versionsIn 2016, director Cheryl Dunye's landmark Black Queer Film THE WATERMELON WOMAN was re-released in select theaters and festivals with a pristine 2K HD restoration overseen by the production company 13th Gen, in partnership with Modern Videofilm. The restoration and re-release was sponsored by First Run Features, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, and the Toronto International Film Festival. This theatrical tour will be followed by a DVD re-release in early 2017.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (2006)
Featured review
The Watermelon Woman (1996) -
I suppose that as a homosexual white British man, I probably wasn't exactly the target audience for this Black, Lesbian film from the U. S., although that in itself goes against my belief that people should explore genres out of their comfort zone, because otherwise they will never know if there is more to life. I could certainly see the appeal of this one for some and the message it was trying to get out. I just didn't like the sex scenes very much (Eek Boobies!).
For the most part, the story was fictionalised and the title character of "The Watermelon Woman" was a vehicle to discuss the injustices of racial bigotry in the world of cinema since the dawn of it's creation and to a certain extent the rest of the time since too.
Although this film did indicate some essence of racism towards white people, for the fact that they allegedly can't understand the persecutions faced by the black community and I wondered if that was deliberate or something that was a missed irony.
The lead character Cheryl played by the writer and director Cheryl Dunye wanted to track down the movements of The Watermelon Woman's past to find out what had happened to her and she studied the golden age of cinema in order to do so. Her journey was quite interesting. I did have to wonder if the whole film might have actually been better if it was presented as a documentary, about actual, real actors of the past that weren't given their dues accordingly.
There was a mention of Hattie McDaniel included here. She was famously snubbed at the Oscars when she went to receive her award for the part of Mammy in 'Gone With The Wind' (1939) and was made to sit in another room and only allowed to enter the main area for the presentation of her statue. Her story was partly covered in the TV series 'Hollywood' (2020) and I'm sure that wasn't delivered wholeheartedly or completely truthfully, because it was a very glamourised interpretation of the early years of Hollywood anyway and it dared to conceive an idea that perhaps these prejudices and things should have been exposed much earlier for their idiocy.
I did say that it might have worked better as a documentary, because I could see that Cheryl was obviously passionate about her message, but the acting really wasn't the best and the film quality was quite poor too, not even just the bits where it was filmed on an old video camera. There were some cheap and odd editing choices and many of the characters were a tad unfriendly while others were perfectly odd including the "Professor" and the C. L. I. T. volunteer (Sarah Schulman).
The style of it actually reminded me of 'Tangerine' (2015), a trans/drag film which was filmed entirely on a smart phone. There were similarities in the direction and the attempt at realism, but this film was far less obnoxious of course, because 'Tangerine' was vile.
It also had a hint of 'Not Another Gay Movie' (2006) too. Those producers, etc must surely have taken inspiration from this film, because the video shop was almost identical.
Not really my thing, but I would definitely recommend it to the appropriate people, because I know some that would appreciate it for its various plus points.
606.19/1000.
I suppose that as a homosexual white British man, I probably wasn't exactly the target audience for this Black, Lesbian film from the U. S., although that in itself goes against my belief that people should explore genres out of their comfort zone, because otherwise they will never know if there is more to life. I could certainly see the appeal of this one for some and the message it was trying to get out. I just didn't like the sex scenes very much (Eek Boobies!).
For the most part, the story was fictionalised and the title character of "The Watermelon Woman" was a vehicle to discuss the injustices of racial bigotry in the world of cinema since the dawn of it's creation and to a certain extent the rest of the time since too.
Although this film did indicate some essence of racism towards white people, for the fact that they allegedly can't understand the persecutions faced by the black community and I wondered if that was deliberate or something that was a missed irony.
The lead character Cheryl played by the writer and director Cheryl Dunye wanted to track down the movements of The Watermelon Woman's past to find out what had happened to her and she studied the golden age of cinema in order to do so. Her journey was quite interesting. I did have to wonder if the whole film might have actually been better if it was presented as a documentary, about actual, real actors of the past that weren't given their dues accordingly.
There was a mention of Hattie McDaniel included here. She was famously snubbed at the Oscars when she went to receive her award for the part of Mammy in 'Gone With The Wind' (1939) and was made to sit in another room and only allowed to enter the main area for the presentation of her statue. Her story was partly covered in the TV series 'Hollywood' (2020) and I'm sure that wasn't delivered wholeheartedly or completely truthfully, because it was a very glamourised interpretation of the early years of Hollywood anyway and it dared to conceive an idea that perhaps these prejudices and things should have been exposed much earlier for their idiocy.
I did say that it might have worked better as a documentary, because I could see that Cheryl was obviously passionate about her message, but the acting really wasn't the best and the film quality was quite poor too, not even just the bits where it was filmed on an old video camera. There were some cheap and odd editing choices and many of the characters were a tad unfriendly while others were perfectly odd including the "Professor" and the C. L. I. T. volunteer (Sarah Schulman).
The style of it actually reminded me of 'Tangerine' (2015), a trans/drag film which was filmed entirely on a smart phone. There were similarities in the direction and the attempt at realism, but this film was far less obnoxious of course, because 'Tangerine' was vile.
It also had a hint of 'Not Another Gay Movie' (2006) too. Those producers, etc must surely have taken inspiration from this film, because the video shop was almost identical.
Not really my thing, but I would definitely recommend it to the appropriate people, because I know some that would appreciate it for its various plus points.
606.19/1000.
- adamjohns-42575
- May 22, 2023
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $300,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,989
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $774
- Nov 13, 2016
- Gross worldwide
- $1,989
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
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