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The Watermelon Woman
''The Watermelon Woman'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Cheryl Dunye. It stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical " mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the period. ''The Watermelon Woman'' is the first feature film directed by a black lesbian and is considered a landmark in New Queer Cinema. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Cheryl is a 25-year-old African-American lesbian who works at a video rental store in Philadelphia with her friend Tamara. She is interested in films from the 1930s and 1940s that feature Black actresses, noting that the actresses in these roles are often not credited. After watching a film titled ''Plantat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye (; born May 13, 1966) is a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known as the first out black lesbian to ever direct a feature film with her 1996 film '' The Watermelon Woman.'' She runs the production company Jingletown Films based in Oakland California. Early life Dunye was born in Monrovia, Liberia and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She first attended Michigan State University where she was in the political theory program due to her desire to make a change and have an impact on the world. When she realized she could use media as a tool in her political activism, she ended up in the filmmaking program at Temple University in Philadelphia. She received her BA from Temple and her MFA from Rutgers' Mason Gross School of Art. While at Temple University, Dunye made her first ever video project for h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheryl Clarke
Cheryl L. Clarke (born Washington DC, May 16, 1947) is an American lesbian poet, essayist, educator and a Black feminist community activist who continues to dedicate her life to the recognition and advancement of Black and Queer people. Her scholarship focuses on African-American women's literature, black lesbian feminism, and the Black Arts Movement in the United States. For over 40 years, Cheryl Clarke worked at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and maintains a teaching affiliation with the Graduate Faculty of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, though retired. In addition, Clarke serves on the board of the Newark Pride Alliance. She currently lives in Hobart, N.Y., the Book Village of the Catskills, after having spent much of her life in New Jersey. With her life partner, Barbara Balliet, she is co-owner of Bleinheim Hill Books, a new, used, and rare bookstore in Hobart. Actively involved in her community, Clarke along with her sister Breena Clarke, a novel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swoon (film)
''Swoon'' is a 1992 independent film written and directed by Tom Kalin. It is an account of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, focusing more on the homosexuality of the killers than other films based on the case. It stars Daniel Schlachet as Loeb and Craig Chester as Leopold. Along with the films of Todd Haynes, Gregg Araki and others, ''Swoon'' is identified as part of the New Queer Cinema. Plot Cast * Daniel Schlachet as Richard Loeb * Craig Chester as Nathan Leopold Jr. * Ron Vawter as State's Attorney Crowe * Michael Kirby as Detective Savage * Michael Stumm as Doctor Bowman * Valda Z. Drabla as Germaine Reinhardt * Natalie Stanford as Susan Lurie * Glenn Backes as James Day Awards * 1992 Berlin International Film Festival - Caligari Film Award, Best Feature - Tom Kalin * 1992 Sundance Film Festival - Cinematography Award (Dramatic) - Ellen Kuras, nominated for Grand Jury Prize * 1993 Independent Spirit Awards - Nominated for Best Cinematography (Ellen Kuras), Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Rakoff
David Benjamin Rakoff (November 27, 1964 – August 9, 2012) was a Canadian-born American writer of prose and poetry based in New York City, who wrote humorous and sometimes autobiographical non-fiction essays. Rakoff was an essayist, journalist, and actor, and a regular contributor to WBEZ's ''This American Life''. Rakoff described himself as a "New York writer" who also happened to be a "Canadian writer", a "mega Jewish writer", a "gay writer", and an "East Asian Studies major who has forgotten most of his Japanese" writer. Early life and education David Rakoff was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the youngest of three children. His brother, the comedian Simon Rakoff, is four years older than David. Their sister, Ruth Rakoff, author of the cancer memoir ''When My World Was Very Small'', is the middle child.Johnson, Sharilyn"Preview: Simon and David Rakoff" ''Uptown Magazine'', June 6, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2010.Hamson, Sarah ''Globe and Mail'', October 22, 2005. Ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to people of the same sex. It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions." Along with bisexuality and heterosexuality, homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation within the heterosexual–homosexual continuum. Scientists do not yet know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences and do not view it as a choice. Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread support, scientists favor biologically based theories. There is considerably more evidence support ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesbian Herstory Archives
The Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA) is a New York City-based archive, community center, and museum dedicated to preserving lesbian history, located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Archives contain the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians. The Archives were founded in 1974 by lesbian members of the Gay Academic Union who had organized a group to discuss sexism within that organization. Co-founders Joan Nestle, Deborah Edel, Sahli Cavallo, Pamela Oline, and Julia Penelope Stanley wanted to ensure that the stories of the lesbian community were protected for future generations. Until the 1990s, the Archives were housed in Nestle's Upper West Side, Manhattan apartment. The collection eventually outgrew the space and was moved to a brownstone that the group had purchased in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood. The Archives hold all manner of historical artifacts relating to lesbians and lesbian organizations and have grown to include some 11,000 books and 1,300 pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interview Magazine
''Interview'' is an American magazine founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol and British journalist John Wilcock. The magazine, nicknamed "The Crystal Ball of Pop", features interviews with celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers. Interviews were usually unedited or edited in the eccentric fashion of Warhol's books and ''The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again''. History Andy Warhol period Bob Colacello was a film student at Columbia University in 1970 when he got a call from someone at ''Interview'' while he was having dinner at his parents’ house in suburban Long Island. Warhol had read a film review Colacello had written for ''The Village Voice'' and wanted to meet him. Colacello subsequently began writing film reviews and essays for ''Interview''. After about six months, Colacello was promoted to editor of the magazine, at a salary of $50 a week. (He also received course credits, as he was still working on his master’s degree at Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoe Leonard
Zoe Leonard (born 1961) is an American artist who works primarily with photography and sculpture. She has exhibited widely since the late 1980s and her work has been included in a number of seminal exhibitions including Documenta IX and Documenta XII, and the 1993, 1997 and 2014 Whitney biennials. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020. Early life Leonard was born in 1961 in Liberty, New York. Leonard's mother was a Polish refugee who was born in Warsaw, immigrating to America at the age of 9 during World War II. Her mother's family were wealthy members of the Polish aristocracy who were involved in the movement for Polish independence and the Polish Resistance. Many members of Leonard's maternal line were killed during the war. Despite being non-Jews, her mother's family was persecuted by the Nazis for their opposition to Nazism and their Polish nationalism. Leonard has stated that her grandmother "was really invested in this idea that we were still aristocracy", al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Endowment For The Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the U.S. Congress, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 29, 1965 (20 U.S.C. 951). It is a sub-agency of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The NEA has its offices in Washington, D.C. It was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1995, as well as the Special Tony Award in 2016. In 1985, the NEA won an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its work with the American Film Institute in the identification, acquisition, restoration and preservation of historic films. In 2016 and aga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watermelon Man (film)
''Watermelon Man'' is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin, Kay Kimberley, Mantan Moreland, and Erin Moran. Written by Herman Raucher, it tells the story of an extremely bigoted 1960s-era white insurance salesman named Jeff Gerber, who wakes up one morning to find that he has become black. The premise for the film was inspired by Franz Kafka's '' Metamorphosis'', and by John Howard Griffin's autobiographical '' Black Like Me''. Van Peebles' only studio film, ''Watermelon Man'' was a financial success, but Van Peebles did not accept Columbia Pictures' three-picture contract, instead developing the independent film ''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song''. The music for ''Watermelon Man'', written and performed by Van Peebles, was released on a soundtrack album, which spawned the single " Love, That's America". Plot Jeff Gerber lives in an average suburban neighborhood with his se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, '' The Story of a Three-Day Pass'' (1967), was based on his own French-language novel ' and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut '' Watermelon Man'', in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker. In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film '' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'', considered one of the earliest and best-regarded examples of the blaxploitation genre. He followed this up with the musical, '' Don't Play Us Cheap'', based on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
