The Watermelon Woman (1996)

Name: The Watermelon Woman
Director: Cheryl Dunye
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 1997-03-05
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Rating: 7.0
Cast: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson

Unrated | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.

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7/10
1,688

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74 Metascore

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Cast & Crew

Top Billed Cast

Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl
Guinevere Turner

Diana
Valarie Walker

Tamara
Lisa Marie Bronson

Fae 'The Watermelon Woman' Richards
Cheryl Clarke

June Walker

(as Cheryl Clark)
Irene Dunye

Irene Dunye
Brian Freeman

Lee Edwards
Ira Jeffries

Shirley Hamilton
Alexandra Juhasz

Martha Page
Camille Paglia

Camille Page
Sarah Schulman

CLIT Archivist
V.S. Brodie

Karaoke Singer
Shelley Olivier

Annie Heath
David Rakoff

Librarian
Toshi Reagon

Street Musician

Full cast

Awards

2 wins.

Reviews & Commentary

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User Reviews

4 September 2004 | junecatpower

| a fantastic movie

The movie centers around a young African-American lesbian,who is researching

a old time actress nicknamed"The Watermelon Womam"who is very similar to

her.This is a good film documentary.Ms.Dunn does a good job filming the movie along with making it work with the cast. This movie doesn't come up short to me,and serves its purpose.it never gets off the storyline,and has one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.The director challengers both race and sexuality makes this film more remarkable.Dealing

with the fact that she is having a relationship that is straining her friendship because of race. The director takes us into her point of view.Her lifestyle.Her way of thinking.And most of all,her life.Also learning about a woman who like her,had a inter race relationship,and who also was an actor.

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Trivia

This film has a 100% rating based on 13 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Quotes

Cheryl: Hey! Hey, you're Martin Pumphrey!
Street Magician: No ma'am, I'm a magician.

Crazy Credits

The film, which seems to be a documentary about Cheryl's search for the obscure actress who inspired her, ends with these printed words: "Sometimes you have to create your own history. The Watermelon Woman is fiction. Cheryl Dunye, 1996"

Alternate Versions

In 2016, director Cheryl Dunye's landmark Black Queer Film THE WATERMELON WOMAN was re-released in select theaters and festivals with a pristine 2K HD restoration overseen by the production company 13th Gen, in partnership with Modern Videofilm. The restoration and re-release was sponsored by First Run Features, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, and the Toronto International Film Festival. This theatrical tour will be followed by a DVD re-release in early 2017.