THE WATERMELON WOMAN AT MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER

Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman — 30 years later, still relevant. Screening + mixer.

In 1996, Cheryl Dunye made something that didn’t exist yet.

The Watermelon Woman follows Cheryl, a young Black lesbian filmmaker in Philadelphia, who becomes obsessed with a forgotten actress from 1930s race films — a woman credited only as “the Watermelon Woman.” What starts as a search for a name becomes something bigger: a meditation on who gets to be remembered, who tells our stories, and what it means to find yourself in history that was never written down for you.

It is a love story. It is an archive. It is a film about making a film about a woman who may not have existed — and why that matters anyway.

The night includes a post-film mixer.

$23 per ticket. A portion supports Maysles Documentary Center. The rest goes directly to The Third Room.

This is a Queer, Black & POC-centered event. All are welcome.

📍 Maysles Documentary Center — 343 Lenox Ave, Harlem, NY

📅 June 11, 2026