Chasing Fae: The Watermelon Woman and Black Lesbian Possibility

The Bedside Table Archives

“…As Laura L. Sullivan explains, the film uses both deconstructive and realist techniques to challenge our own lack of knowledge about African American history and black lesbian culture. 18 The film is also an intertextual project. The pseudorealism, underpinned by Cheryl's direct dialogue with the audience and the faked documents created for the purpose of the film, allows the film to serve as pastiche, imitating not another work of art but the absurdity of excavating evidence of queer lives from the historical record.…”

Woman's Reappearance: Rethinking the Archive in Contemporary Art—feminist Perspectives

“…This fictional documentary revolves around Dunye's rising consciousness and her need to reclaim a black lesbian legacy in twentieth-century American cinema. Fae Richards acts as a mirror for an untold history in which the young filmmaker might be able to recognise herself (Sullivan, 2000). During the film, a number of photographs of the black actress are shown as a means to attest to her existence-and yet they were entirely made up by Zoe Leonard, in collaboration with a number of actors listed at the end of the film.…”

Book Review: Women's Movements in Twentieth-century Taiwan

“…The work was created for Dunye's film The Watermelon Woman (1996), the story of the filmmaker's search for Fae Richards (née Richardson, 1910(née Richardson, -1973, an African-American lesbian actress and singer of the 1920s and 1930s who actually never existed. Fae Richards acts as a mirror for an untold history in which the young filmmaker might be able to recognise herself (Sullivan, 2000). Fae Richards acts as a mirror for an untold history in which the young filmmaker might be able to recognise herself (Sullivan, 2000).…”