Film Club: The Watermelon Woman

‘The Watermelon Woman’ was the name given to the mythical Fae Richards, a beautiful yet elusive Black actress from the 1930s. In all her films, it was her only billing, why should that be? It is a mystery that perplexes Cheryl (Cheryl Dunye), a young black film maker. She sets out to solve the mystery by making a documentary about this forgotten star.

The Watermelon Woman garnered great critical and audience acclaim, and contains the most notorious lesbian sex scene of its time, (which even saw the film being discussed in Congress). The film is a fiction, but Cheryl Dunye says, “Sometimes you have to create your own history.”