VI International Seminar on Saint Patrick’s Day. Intersections of Race, Sexuality and Film Archives in the Watermelon Woman

A key text of New Queer Cinema, The Watermelon Woman (1996), directed by Cheryl Dunye, is an important piece of cinema history in itself, and allows us to examine and understand many aspects of film, feminist, and black and queer history that intersect in this one indie film.

This talk will touch on the intersections of the hidden history of women filmmakers in Hollywood; important aspects of African-American film history such as the early filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, Blaxploitation, and New Black Cinema; and essential elements of queer representation including the Culture Wars, the AIDS crisis, and lesbian invisibility.

We will see how The Watermelon Woman mines and exposes the missing archives of black and queer life and in so doing constructs a paradigm for knowing our queer black American history.