Cheryl Dunye

Over twists, presses, and wash-and-goes, filmmaker Cheryl Dunye joins other clients and hairstylist DiAna DiAna in her South Carolina salon to discuss the current impact of AIDS on Blacks in the south, and what has changed and stayed the same since DiAna was featured in a seminal short video by Ellen Spiro thirty years ago. Commissioned by Visual AIDS in 2017 as part of ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, a program of seven videos prioritizing Black narratives within the ongoing AIDS epidemic curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett.

Short film created for the 2014 San Francisco Dance Film Festival's Co-Laboratory project. Choreographed and performed by Jocquese Whitfield.

Black - once Blue - is now a trans man who works as a security guard in an apartment complex in Oakland. One night, Black notices an ex- girlfriend partying with some other women in one of the buildings. As none of the other security guards want to watch 'the lezzie party', Black volunteers to, thinking he may resolve some inner conflicts from the past. However, things take a turn for the worse.

Valencia is a collaboration between a national community of queer filmmakers to adapt the underground classic memoir into a kaleidoscopic vision of San Francisco's Mission District in the early 90s during the rise of a punk lesbian diaspora told through the experiences of Michelle, a single rootless twenty-something searching for sex and love, drugs and adventure.

With things growing a bit stale in the bedroom, lesbian couple Claudia and Dylan agree to seek sexual experiences outside their relationship. Dylan discovers new pleasures at a sex club, while Claudia, in drag as Claude, finds a surprising partner.

Two middle-aged lesbian couples accidentally kill a younger girl and decide to cover it up. But their crime comes back to haunt them when an unexpected stranger appears in their lives, bringing tension and discord.

A trio of young men are forced to grow up quick when their girlfriends all become pregnant around the same time.

After a stint in a juvenile detention center, Treasure is transferred to an adult prison where her mother, whom she has never met, is also imprisoned. Before long, Treasure encounters Brownie, a lifer and gang leader. Brownie reveals that she is Treasure's mother, and takes the girl under her wing, protecting her from the dangers of hardcore prison life. But some women in Brownie's gang resent Treasure's presence, leading to violent conflict.

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.

Cheryl, playing herself, humorously experiences the mysteries of lesbian dating in the '90s.

Sparks fly as racial, sexual and social politics intermingle at a lesbian potluck.

Filmmaker Cheryl Dunye's relationship with her brother is examined in this mixture of appropriated film footage, Super 8mm home movies, and Dunye's special brand of humor.

An interracial story of love, passion, and pussy.

She Don't Fade chronicles the sexual pursuits of Shae Clarke, an African American lesbian. Clarke, played by Dunye herself, defines and readily demonstrates her "new approach to women."

A short exploring what the term ‘Vanilla Sex’ means in black and queer communities through Polaroid photographs.

The story of a black lesbian's relationship with a white, upper middle class high school girl.