The Watermelon Woman

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Cast

Cheryl Dunye
as Cheryl

Valarie Walker
as Tamara

Guinevere Turner
as Diana

Valerie Walker
as Tamara

Lisa Marie Bronson
as Fae Richards/The Watermelon Woman

Camille Paglia
as Herself

Brian Freeman
as Lee

Irene Dunye
as Mrs. Dunye

Cheryl Clarke
as Shirley

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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?
  Walter M Super Reviewer

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