Artist discusses power of films

By Erica Miller, Online Forty-Niner

Wednesday, November 18, 1998

For some filmmakers, making movies is an art. For Cheryl Dunye, actor, director and writer of "The Watermelon Women," it is a way of life, something that gives a glimpse of who she is and what she believes in.

As part of the Odyssey Project, the award-winning filmmaker, activist and artist discussed Tuesday in LA2-109 her two video productions and the elements that fueled her desire to make films that make commentary about lesbians, race, class and identity.

One of the reasons Dunye felt the urgency to do something active was because of her marginalized position as an African-American lesbian, not only in society but also within her immediate environment.

"In thinking about who I am and where I came from, I really had to talk about the margins," Dunye said. "I think the margin is a place to feel empowered and you don't have to feel like you are in or out but you can actually be much more critical."

In recognizing this, Dunye identified with African American lesbian and gay activists who were making various analyses of life in the margins while she was an undergraduate at Temple University studying film and video production.

"I was taking classes in the Afro-American studies department, in the English department and the women's studies department leading up to what, I don't know."

At Temple University, Dunye began taking film production classes, but she really began her experimentation as a graduate student in the art department at Rutgers University.

Her second video titled "Shae Don't Fade," a lesbian comedy in which Dunye is the main character, was made in 1992 while she was attending Rutgers University.

Dunye's third video production during her last year at Rutgers University was "The Potluck and the Passion," which centers around a group of her friends who were dealing with issues of interracial relations connected with dating, social activities, plural identities and political actions.

Dunye said she used humor to relay these messages and politicize her work.

"I was really strung out on the concept that the personal is political, that our lives matter and I could use this to talk about issues of class, race and sexuality."

Dunye said that in film school, the emphasis impressed on the students was getting out a certain type of product whereas in the art school at Rutgers, students were taught to analyze subjects they were filming.

"I was in this studio and it was this big moment for me where I actually felt like somebody believed in what I was doing, someone wanted me to think," Dunye said. "Here was my one moment to actually explore all possibilities of what I could do."

Dunye's productions are what she previously described as Dunyementaries in which she is the actor, narrator, writer and director. By filming herself, Dunye was able to facilitate her ideas and combine her activism, creativity and identity.

"I asked, who is going to answer all these issues about representation and character and who is going to deal with my pain about media, about representations of black women and the invisible lesbian?"

Dunye said that this is the time that students should explore all of the ideas that come to mind because there may not be an opportunity once one's school days are through.

"When I was your age and I was in school, I didn't know what to do," Dunye said. "I was angry as hell and I was not going to take it because I was not seeing images of black women that I could identify with on television in the 1980s."

Dunye cited "The Cosby Show" as one program televised during the 1980s that was centered around an African-American family, but did not represent any of the roles that spoke to her.