Cheryl, an aspiring black lesbian filmmaker working in a video store, is making a documentary about a black actress from the 1930s who was typecast, credited only as “the watermelon woman.” While uncovering the meaning of her life, Cheryl simultaneously experiences an upheaval in her own.

Groundbreaking in more ways than one, Cheryl Dunye’s autofiction work was the first feature to be directed by a Black lesbian filmmaker. A highlight of the ’90s New Queer Cinema, this joyous comedy wittily reflects, with contagious energy, on film history, representation, race relations, and desire.