ABSTRACT
Perhaps most famous for writing, starring in, and directing the first African American lesbian feature film, The Watermelon Woman (1995), Cheryl Dunye’s filmmaking spans a number of genres including narrative, documentary, and memoir. Her other projects include numerous shorts, as well as features Stranger Inside (2002), My Baby’s Daddy (2004), The Owls (2010), and Mommy is Coming (2012). Coining the term “Dunyementary,” Dunye’s films intertwine forms, genres, and styles that question contemporary understandings of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Exploring the interconnections between postmodernism and personal identity, Dunye’s intersectional approach to filmmaking also maps out the ways in which African American lesbian identities have been largely underrepresented within popular culture. Included in this chapter are two interviews that explore Dunye’s oeuvre—one published in The Independent Film & Video Monthly in 2001 and an original interview with Dunye in 2018.
