Cheryl Dunye in "The Watermelon Woman" at the Bettendorf Public Library -- July 21.
Friday, July 21, 1:30 p.m.
Bettendorf Public Library, 2950 Learning Campus Drive, Bettendorf IA
Winner of the Best Feature Film prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman enjoys a Bettendorf Public Library screening on July 21 in conjunction with the summertime "Find Your Voice" series, a program focused on works about people from marginalized communities that have been historically underrepresented in film.
In this witty, nimble landmark of New Queer Cinema that made its U.S. debut in 1997, writer/director Dunye plays Cheryl, a video-store clerk and fledgling filmmaker who becomes obsessed with the “most beautiful mammy,” a character she sees in a 1930s movie titled Plantation Memories. Determined to find out who the actress she knows only as the “Watermelon Woman” was, and hoping to make her the subject of a documentary, Cheryl starts researching and is bowled over to discover that not only was the role's portrayer Fae Richards (Lisa Marie Bronson) a fellow Philadelphian but also, like Cheryl herself, a lesbian. Cheryl's project, however, is not without significant drama, as the fledgling filmmaker's singular focus causes friction between Cheryl and her friend Tamara (Valarie Walker), and Cheryl also begins to see parallels between Fae’s problematic relationship with a white director and her own budding romance with her video store's white customer Diana (played by filmmaker Guinevere Turner).
The Watermelon Woman's genesis came in 1993, when Dunye was doing research for a class on Black film history by looking for information on Black actresses in early films. Many times, the credits for these women were left out of the film, and Dunye decided that she was going to use her work to create a story for Black women in early films. When confronted about the omissions in film history, Dunye told Lesbian News, "It's going to take more than just my film for that picture to be corrected. There needs to be more work, there needs to be more Black protagonists. There are a lot of talented actresses that have nothing to do but 'mammy' roles again and again, modern-day mammies. There needs to be a focus that gets them working, getting some of those Academy Awards like they should."
Premiering at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival, The Watermelon Woman played at several other international film festivals during 1996 and 1997, including the New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, L.A. Outfest, the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, the Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, the Créteil International Women's Film Festival, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Nearly thee decades later, Dunye's movie was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 2016 as part of its film collection. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a score of 92-percent "freshness." with the site's consensus stating, "An auspicious debut for writer/director Cheryl Dunye, The Watermelon Woman tells a fresh story in wittily irreverent style."
The Watermelon Woman will be presented in the library's Bettendorf Room on July 21, admission to the 1:30 p.m. screening is free, and more information is available by calling (563)344-4175 and visiting BettendorfLibrary.com.
