Following the breakout moment of the New Queer Cinema movement, Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (1996) stands as a landmark for independent filmmaking.

The film follows Cheryl, a young Black lesbian filmmaker’s pursuit of researching a forgotten 1930s Black actress, credited only as “the Watermelon Woman”. What begins as a simple curiosity unfolds into a witty yet piercing excavation of race and sexuality in and through film history. Simultaneously, Cheryl navigates her own romantic relationships, subtly linking the politics of representation to the intimacies of everyday life.

Blending mockumentary and fiction, Dunye sheds light on the absence and erasure of Black queer women from film history, posing questions that still deeply resonate nearly three decades later: who gets to be remembered, and who gets to decide? What does it mean to celebrate a history that seems to not exist?

Join us for the second installment in our Fruit Week Special, where we celebrate queer storytelling and the enduring power of making your stories heard.