The Watermelon Woman—co-written and directed by Cheryl Dunye, who also stars—has an inconspicuous audacity. The indie comedy wears its trailblazing identity (as the work and story of a black queer woman) lightly; its shaggy, episodic structure is seemingly haphazard; and its scope feels deceptively small. Yet if you take a step back—and especially consider the implications of the film’s final reveal—you realize you’ve witnessed a cinematic landmark of sly formal sophistication. Dunye plays Cheryl, an aspiring filmmaker stuck in a dead-end job at a video store. Between hangouts with her blunt best friend (Valarie Walker) and romantic dalliances with a customer (Guinevere Turner), Cheryl conducts research for her documentary project on Fae “The Watermelon Woman” Richards, an actress and singer who tried to break out of “mammy” roles in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood. Funny and fiercely curious, Dunye propels the movie with glee and good humor, even if many of the topics explored are quite serious. The mixture of 16mm film and video footage offers a time-capsule quality, as well as a cinematic richness. That quality deepens with the film’s final twist, which I won’t reveal. Suffice it to say The Watermelon Woman means one thing while watching it and quite another after.
(10/19/2026)
