Janine (1990) dir. Cheryl Dunye

Before becoming synonymous with the New Queer Wave and sealing her place in history as the first Black lesbian to direct a feature film, Cheryl Dunye experimented with subtle shorts that blurred the line between fact and fiction. Janine, one of the directors first lunges into filmmaking, unravels pentup teenage frustrations brought on by the standards of white America into a cathartic confessional. The film unfolds selfconsciously, woven between directcamera confessions, high school snapshots and apparitions of two flickering flames atop pink candles. Janine marks Dunyes first film as an MFA student at Rutgers University. It took Dunye many years to incorporate her voice as a Black lesbian into her work as an artist. But, readying herself for a career in filmmaking, Dunye found it necessary to immerse herself, physically and autobiographically, as a character in her work.