SCCI Cinema Club presents: Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (15)

UCL School for the Creative and Cultural Industries is delighted to present the latest screening of the SCCI Cinema Club – the cult classic of the New Queer Cinema movement, and the 1st US feature film by an ‘out’ Black lesbian.

Taking place at the One Pool Street Cinema at UCL East, we will be hosting a series of free screenings, sharing the films that have inspired and influenced researchers, artists, and practitioners across our creative community.

Lucy Brownson, Lecturer in Archives and Records Management and tutor on Information in Society BSc at the UCL East Campus, has selected The Watermelon Woman directed by and starring Cheryl Dunye.

Lucy says:

“The Watermelon Woman is genre-bending in multiple ways, combining humour, elements of (auto)biography, critical fabulation and mockumentary to interrogate the marginalisation of queer Black women and women of colour in both cinema history and archival organisations (even those labouring under the banner of ‘community’). In so doing, it asks vital questions about representational and reparatory work within and beyond archives, about who gets to do the work of making histories and worlds, and about who is forcibly placed in the margins. To mark LGBT+ History Month, I’ve selected this film because it reckons with the limitations and possibilities of queer and feminist archival work, something which has deeply influenced my own practice as a community archivist and educator.”

The Watermelon Woman will be screened at 6.30pm and introduced by Lucy Brownson. Doors open at 6pm, please aim to be seated by 6.15pm at the latest. Bring your friends, family and colleagues – all are welcome.

Please note this film has an age rating of 15 -Strong language, mild drug use, scenes of nudity and moderate sex references.