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SPEAKER_01: This Pride Month, Womanaka is brought to you exclusively by Mercedes Benz. Together, we're honoring people who've expanded the norms of gender and sexuality in the performing arts. Mercedes Benz embraces the freedom of individual expression and continues to support and stand with the LGBTQIA plus community. Listen all month long as we share stories of proud individuals whose authentic expression in their lives and bodies of work have challenged norms, driving society forward. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanaka. This month, we're highlighting queer stars of stage and screen, women who expanded the norms of gender and sexuality behind the scenes and in the limelight. Today, we're talking about the first black lesbian to direct a feature film. The movie called The Watermelon Woman established her as a leading voice in the new queer cinema movement of the 1990s. Let's talk about Cheryl Dunye. Cheryl was born on May 13th, 1966 in Monrovia, Liberia and grew up in Philadelphia. Before becoming a filmmaker, Cheryl was enrolled in a political theory program at Michigan State. But after realizing the program wasn't for her, she moved to Temple University where she ended up studying film. She was also a filmmaker and a filmmaker who was a major part of the film industry. She was also a filmmaker and a filmmaker who ended up studying film. Cheryl started to wonder if she could use filmmaking as a political tool to bring about change.
SPEAKER_07: It was during the tour of She's Gotta Hop It with Spike Lee and he came to Philadelphia. Spike, or whatever they called him, Mr. Lee, I don't know what they called him, but what are you trying to say about women with your film She's Gotta Hop It? Why is Nola so problematic? Why is she sexualized in such a way? Why is she represented this way? And his only answer was, well, it's my film and that's the way I wanted her to be represented. If you wanna make a different representation of African American women, go make your own film. Everybody was like, ooh, no he didn't, uh-oh. And I just got the big light bulb moment that you're right, if I wanna make my own representations about black women, I'm gonna have to make my own film.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunity to do so presented itself when Cheryl heard the author and poet, Sapphire, read her poem, Wild Thing, which was about the Central Park Five. Cheryl recorded Sapphire reading the poem, then overlaid Sapphire's voice onto a video collage with images from newspapers and other clips that Cheryl had filmed. The resulting short film was a hit and it convinced Cheryl that she could use her movies to make political statements. Cheryl graduated from Temple University and then received an MFA from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts. Throughout, she kept making short films. Then in 1993, while researching film archives, Cheryl realized that many black actresses in early films were left out of the credits, leaving them out of film history. Cheryl wanted to change that, so she created and directed her film, The Watermelon Woman. The Watermelon Woman centers around the life of a documentary filmmaker named Cheryl, who's played by Cheryl herself. In the movie, Cheryl comes across a film called Plantation Memories, which features a black woman listed in the credits only as Watermelon Woman. So Cheryl embarks on a journey to discover who the Watermelon Woman is.
SPEAKER_06: Is Watermelon Woman her first name, her last name, or is it her whole name? I don't know, but girlfriend has it going on and I think I've figured out what my project's gonna be on. I'm gonna make a movie about her.
SPEAKER_01: The film, which is shot like a documentary but contains fictional elements, was a groundbreaking blend of fiction and reality. It was also a rare representation of the black lesbian experience. Cheryl later said of the movie, I wanted to put people in the film that I saw in my world. In 2002, Cheryl released her second feature film, Stranger Inside, which focuses on the stories of incarcerated women. For that project, Cheryl did extensive research, including hosting a screenwriting workshop with a group of 12 incarcerated women. Over the next decade, Cheryl continued making films as well as teaching film in schools across the country. To date, she's made more than 15 films, all centered on themes of race, sexuality, and gender. In 2016, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of filmmaking. In 2017, Cheryl made her first foray into the world of television, directing two episodes of the show, Queen Sugar. Since then, she's directed many more TV episodes, including for the shows, Claws, Dear White People, and All Rise. She also directed an episode of HBO's Lovecraft Country that was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. In 2019, Cheryl founded Jingle Town Films, a company focused on giving a platform to underrepresented storytellers. Cheryl and Jingle Town Films are working to produce The Gilda Stories, an Afro-futurist TV series that follows a formerly enslaved Black bisexual vampire who comes of age over the course of 200 years of American history. Cheryl's first film, The Watermelon Woman, is widely considered a classic. Her voice has left a lasting mark on the world of film and television. And still, there's more to come.
SPEAKER_07: My advice to anybody in filmmaking, in the arts, is you only live once, and you have to do it now. Nobody else is gonna do it for you.
SPEAKER_01: All month, we're talking about queer stars of the stage and screen. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram, at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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SPEAKER_08: The latest in filmmaking investigations and epic adventures. No place, no one, no story is off limits, and you'll always learn something new. It's time for 60 Minutes. New episode airs Sunday, September 24th on CBS, and streaming on Paramount+.
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