The Watermelon Woman Details

It might have won the Teddy Bear for the best gay film at the 1996 Berlin festival, but Cheryl Dunye's fictional documentary is too inward-looking for its own good. Hollywood's denial of opportunity to black (let alone gay and lesbian) performers in the 1930s and 1940s is certainly a topic worthy of discussion. But Dunye's pursuit of the “watermelon woman”, a character actress she keeps spotting in old Hollywood movies, gets tangled up too often in her relationships with her closest friend and a new white lover. Moreover, the camera work is fussy and the satire is too self-congratulatory. However, there is an insightful glimpse of controversial academic Camille Paglia in action.

"...[A] wry and exhilarating comedy, at once romantic and sharply observant....Dunye has much to express, and she does it with humor, energy, wit, passion and perception..."