The Watermelon Woman

Audience Reviews

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Suzana M A delicious and empowering narrative denouncing the silencing of black women throughout the development of cinema in the USA (and the world?). The flirtation between fiction and documentary emerges as a strategy to problematize the historical sources and personal narratives that make up the great archive of cinema history. The discussions about the encounter between the experiences of gender, sexuality and race are the icing on the cake, and a masterpiece of black lesbian cinema. Excellent film! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/01/23 Full Review creative u When I saw this film had 53% on the audience score, I figured it was for racist reasons, I looked at the reviews and I was sort of right. Though they won't say it, most of the audience here completely missed the point of the movie. Anyways this was a fine film, groundbreaking even now, and it's a fun time capsule of mid '90s Philadelphia. The only reason I gave it a rating is because the website required it, but honestly the film is beyond a measly rating in my opinion. It's funny reading some of the reviews of students who were "forced" to watch it for their class and didn't appreciate it, hilarious. I love it's style, the way that it's edited and honestly the whole aesthetic of the film, though the acting, editing and some of the scenes are amateurish, but in my opinion that's part of it's charm. I really love the scene towards the end where Fae's partner criticizes the way that Cheryl is focusing too much of her documentary on the white lesbian director and not on the life she shared with June, as well as how Cheryl ends the film with the phrase "Sometimes we have to tell our own stories" before revealing that Fae Richards never existed. It should be a lot higher on those best LGBTQ films lists, especially the lesbian ones, but I'm not surprised that it isn't. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/19/22 Full Review dave s Just because something is influential or groundbreaking doesn't make it watchable. Case in point: The Watermelon Woman. Congratulations to Cheryl Dunye for apparently being the first black lesbian to direct a full-length film, which she also edited, wrote, and starred in. The premise? A video store clerk spends her free time trying to research and put together a documentary film about a black actress from the ‘30s known only as the Watermelon Woman. Some of the faux documentary footage is interesting, but the rest of the film is devastatingly bad, including wooden performances, brutal dialogue, unimaginative direction, and scenes that go nowhere and add nothing to the story. Had Dunye stuck to the documentary angle, the film could have had a fighting chance. As it is, it is a tough slog. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member A brilliant film, equal parts serious and silly. Explores the ideas of different types of truth ("stories are lies that reveal a greater truth") and history which we makee for ourselves, and in particular that marginalised communities make for themselves. It's incredibly subtle for a debut film, and while it's clearly very low budget/amateur that never detracts. Ideas around intersectionality are brilliantly explored. Clearly wears its Spike Lee influence on its sleeve but hey at least with the shoutout they're honest. Big recommend. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member The whole time I was watching it, I was mentally beating myself over the head going 'why can't you enjoy this, you ingrate!? this is a landmark in LGBT cinema!! this is your history!!'. I really wanted to like this film but found it tedious and amateurish. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member I'm not good at giving reviews and critique. But i was able to watch this movie without forwarding or in 2x speed which is saying a lot. The movie is really good, it really pique my interest because of the idea of going back and finding traces of yourself in history is so relatable. It only comes when you feel so lost and unsupported in the current lifetime, that finding someone back then was also sapphic must've beeen so idk reassuring. I'm not sure thats how Cheryl felt but I'm projecting probably. The concept was very nice, i would have loved more in dept of that. But the other part of the movie was focused on black lesbians, so i understand Cheryl wanting to do a balance of both. Of which, the latter I couldn't relate to. However, it's an amazing film nonetheless. The cuts were a little annoying, the fashion is A+ It also made me more hungry for poc stories, especially love stories embedded beneath everything else. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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