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      The Watermelon Woman

      1996, Comedy/Lgbtq+, 1h 21m

      62 Reviews 500+ Ratings

      What to know

      Critics Consensus

      An auspicious debut for writer-director Cheryl Dunye, The Watermelon Woman tells a fresh story in wittily irreverent style. Read critic reviews

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      Movie Info

      An aspiring black lesbian filmmaker researches an obscure 1940s black actress billed as the Watermelon Woman.

      • Genre: Comedy, Lgbtq+

      • Original Language: English

      • Director: Cheryl Dunye

      • Producer: Barry Swimar

      • Writer: Cheryl Dunye

      • Release Date (Theaters):  original

      • Release Date (Streaming):

      • Box Office (Gross USA): $1.5K

      • Runtime:

      • Distributor: First Run

      Cast & Crew

      Lisa Marie Bronson
      Toshi Reagon
      Sarah Schulman
      V.S. Brodie
      Cheryl Dunye
      Michael Light
      Michelle Crenshaw
      Cheryl Dunye
      Annie Taylor
      Paul Shapiro
      Robert Holtzman
      Stacey Byers
      Luciana Moreira

      News & Interviews for The Watermelon Woman

      Critic Reviews for The Watermelon Woman

      Audience Reviews for The Watermelon Woman

      • Sep 02, 2009
        Even though "The Watermelon Woman" is quite unpolished, writer-director Cheryl Dunye still manages to create a realistic fictional history in it to explore themes of race and sexuality while paralleling that with a fictional present where she plays Cheryl who works at a video store with her pal Tamara(Valarie Walker) and as videographers. Tamara tries to set her up on a blind date at a karaoke bar but it goes disastrously wrong.(Surprisingly, even worse than the usual karaoke nightmare.) Unexpectedly, Cheryl finds herself attracted to Diana(Guinevere Turner) who is new to Philadelphia. Cheryl also has dreams of becoming a filmmaker and has decided to focus on The Watermelon Woman(Lisa Marie Bronson), nee Fae Richards, who was featured in Hollywood films as a stereotypical black maid and more three dimensional roles in race films. What Dunye does well is give a tantalizing glimpse at a lost world while debating whether or not actors like Fae were positive or negative role models. Adding versimilitude to the proceedings are interviews with Dunye's mother and Camille Paglia, about whom the reality of is debatable. For example, what does a watermelon having the same colors as the Italian flag have to do with anything?
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