Cheryl Dunye Selects!

September 18–November 2, 2025

Brilliant writer, director, and producer Cheryl Dunye’s carte blanche series offers viewers the opportunity to revisit some of her iconic works, as well as a fascinating selection of recent restorations and archival film prints spanning genres and themes, from B movies to biopics to Blaxploitation.

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  • Cheryl Dunye: The Watermelon Woman, 1996

  • Harry Kümel: Daughters of Darkness, 1971

  • Julian Schnabel: Before Night Falls, 2000

  • Ivan Dixon: The Spook Who Sat by the Door, 1973

  • Cheryl Dunye: Stranger Inside, 2001

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • The Watermelon Woman

    Cheryl Dunye
    United States, 1996
    Thursday, September 18 7 PM
    Cheryl Dunye and Leigh Raiford in Conversation

    Almost thirty—and still turning heads—Cheryl Dunye’s love letter to Black lesbian history and its legacy proves that DIY cinema can rewrite the archive with wit, charm, and a camcorder.

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  • Women’s Prison

    Lewis Seiler
    United States, 1955
    Sunday, September 21 7 PM

    “Nothing says ‘studio-era repression’ like a sadistic warden and a riot in heels. It’s camp, it’s cruel, and it cracks open a space for the queer and feminist subtext I live for” (Cheryl Dunye).

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  • Stranger Inside

    Cheryl Dunye
    United States, 2001

    Free admission. Tickets available at the admissions desk beginning at 6 PM.

    Friday, September 26 7 PM
    Cheryl Dunye and Lisa Armstrong in Conversation

    Yolanda Ross stars as Treasure, a tough, young butch, in this terrific, rarely seen women’s prison drama, in which Chery Dunye centers the experiences of Black queer women behind bars.

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  • Cheryl Dunye’s Short Work

    Wednesday, October 15 7 PM
    Cheryl Dunye and Allegra Madsen in Conversation

    Cheryl Dunye’s fantastic short films chart the evolution of her voice: ”DIY, Black, queer, and always a little bit disruptive. These shorts are where I found my vision and learned to bend form to tell truths that didn’t yet have a genre.”

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  • The Spook Who Sat by the Door

    Ivan Dixon
    United States, 1973

    Restored 35mm Archival Print

    Saturday, October 18 7 PM
    Introduced by Michael Mark Cohen; Greg Bridges and Nomathandé Dixon in Conversation

    Ivan Dixon’s chronicle of the CIA’s first Black agent turned freedom fighter on the streets of Chicago is “guerrilla cinema at its finest—radical, unapologetic, and still dangerous. It lit the match for a conversation on resistance that we’re still having today” (Cheryl Dunye).

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  • Daughters of Darkness

    Harry Kümel
    Belgium, France, West Germany, 1971
    Friday, October 24 7 PM

    With Delphine Seyrig as the ageless Hungarian Countess Báthory checked into an isolated seaside hotel in the offseason, Harry Kümel’s “fairy tale for adults” is elegant, erotic, and dripping in queer vampire iconography.

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  • The Werewolf of Washington

    Milton Moses Ginsberg
    United States, 1973

    BAMPFA Collection

    Sunday, October 26 7 PM

    “Because sometimes you need a little Halloween camp to take a bite out of what’s happening in this country. It’s satire with fangs—and the horror feels a little too familiar” (Cheryl Dunye).

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  • Before Night Falls

    Julian Schnabel
    United States, 2000
    Sunday, November 2 7 PM
    Cheryl Dunye and Damon Young in Conversation

    A sweeping cinematic portrait of the Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas that “honor(s) queer memory with lyrical, defiant beauty” (Cheryl Dunye).

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