Usually referenced as the first film to be directed by a black lesbian, Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman is a layered exploration of sexual and racial identity as depicted on-screen and experienced off-screen. Dunye plays Cheryl, a video-store worker (à la Tarantino’s former occupation and Randal’s occupation in Clerks) and aspiring documentarian with a particular interest in forgotten black actresses of the 1930s and ‘40s. While searching for one such, credited merely as ‘Watermelon Woman’, she begins dating Diana (Guinevere Turner), and her life and work begin to overlap in this witty and irreverent interrogation of social and cinema history

Notes by Kevin Coyne

IFI Age Recommendation: 16+

Screening as part of the American Independents season.