A UK cin­e­ma is ded­i­cat­ing 58% of its pro­gram­ming to mar­gin­alised filmmakers

A new sea­son cham­pi­oning the work of women, trans and non-bina­ry film­mak­ers is tak­ing place at Liv­er­pool Small Cin­e­ma between Thurs­day 2 June and Sun­day 31 July. The 58% tri­al was prompt­ed by the real­i­sa­tion that only 18 per cent of films screened at the venue were direct­ed by women. The pro­gramme offers a mix of titles by art-house vet­er­ans (Agnes Var­da, Věra Chytilová, Lucre­cia Mar­tel) and new voic­es (Marielle Heller, July Jung, Ester Mar­tin Bergs­mark). There are genre titles (Pet Sematary by Mary Lam­bert), con­cept movies (52 Tues­days by Sophie Hyde) and a chance to see The Water­mel­on Woman, a non-mock­ing mock­u­men­tary which, accord­ing to leg­end, is the first film direct­ed by an African-Amer­i­can lesbian.

Cheryl Dun­ye is the direc­tor and star of this New York-set cul­tur­al detec­tive movie from 1996. Real­i­ty and fic­tion over­lap at var­i­ous points, includ­ing Dun­ye nam­ing her char­ac­ter after her­self. Cheryl works in a video store, earn­ing side-cash by shoot­ing com­mu­ni­ty events with tem­pes­tu­ous pal and col­league, Tam­ra. Her true call­ing is moviemak­ing, so she decides to make a doc­u­men­tary inves­ti­gat­ing the iden­ti­ty and sto­ry of a black 1940s actress that catch­es her eye in a film called Plan­ta­tion Mem­o­ries. The catch is that the actress is cred­it­ed not by her own name, but as ​‘The Water­mel­on Woman’.

While the sur­face of this film is breezy – show­ing Cheryl and her out pals liv­ing life on their own terms; work­ing, going out, argu­ing, hav­ing sex – Dun­ye points to the film industry’s racist his­to­ry in the bluntest terms pos­si­ble. The char­ac­ter Cheryl may casu­al­ly refer to ​‘mam­my pic­tures’ but by her doing so, we are told that she is used to trawl­ing through the stereo­typed bit-play­ers of his­to­ry (epit­o­mised by Gone with the Wind’s Hat­tie Daniels, who gets sev­er­al shout-outs) in order to find some­one who even slight­ly resem­bles herself.

“Some­times you have to cre­ate your own his­to­ry. The Water­mel­on Woman is fic­tion” says a clos­ing title card that quotes Dun­ye. The rel­a­tive­ly pal­try resources on black his­to­ry are a recur­rent beat. Dun­ye push­es her theme through strange­ly far­ci­cal scenes that take place in libraries, with friend net­works and in LGBT archives.

Cheryl’s nat­ur­al charm – expressed through char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion and dia­logue that is some­how both light and punchy – pow­ers the film car­ry­ing a rough-hewn aes­thet­ic and occa­sion­al­ly sketchy world-build­ing. Her charm also draws a sul­try white hon­ey for love­mak­ing, but the deep­er Cheryl gets into her hunt, the more we see of her anger and resource­ful­ness, and the blunter we see her being with those who don’t under­stand the urgency of her quest. We watch as a pep­py video store employ­ee trans­forms into a pos­sessed documentarian.

For the arc of the film relates to the seri­ous res­o­nance of art and the movies. The Water­mel­on Woman is pitched towards intel­lec­tu­al ratio­nal­i­sa­tion (there is a great Camille Paglia cameo) and there is a sense that infor­ma­tion begets more infor­ma­tion, which is to say that his­to­ry is vital because it helps us under­stand who we are.

The Water­mel­on Woman screens at Liv­er­pool Small Cin­e­ma on Thurs­day 2 June. For more info vis­it liv​er​pools​mall​cin​e​ma​.org​.uk