Growing up in Philadelphia, Cheryl Dunye says she was fascinated by the stories reflected in her mother's scrapbook photos. She studied filmmaking in college and graduate school but didn't see people who looked like her on screen.

Dunye changed that with her 1996 debut, The Watermelon Woman. It is the first feature-length film written and directed by a Black lesbian. In it, Dunye plays a fictionalized version of her 25-year-old self, a video store clerk aspiring to become a filmmaker. In her off hours, she watches films from the 1930s and '40s with Black actresses such as Hattie McDaniel and Louise Beavers. However, they're often relegated to racially stereotyped roles; some aren't even listed in the credits.