The Watermelon Woman

With her first feature, The Watermelon Woman, writer-director-punk archivist-actor Cheryl Dunye creates an entirely new form of blended fictional narrative, mockumentary, and archeological dig, which became known as the “Dunyementary.” As “Cheryl,” a twenty-something video store employee with big dreams to open her own production company with her friend and coworker Tamara, she ends up literally creating her own lineage. After becoming obsessed with the Black actress who keeps popping up in 1930s American films, only credited as “Watermelon Woman,” Cheryl sets out to create a documentary that will lead her to the identity of Fae Richards/Faith Richardson, with whom she feels an unexplained kinship.