{"id":205612,"date":"2025-01-19T15:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T14:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=205612"},"modified":"2025-01-19T15:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T14:56:40","slug":"blog-cheryl-dunye-on-her-cinemart-project-black-is-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-cheryl-dunye-on-her-cinemart-project-black-is-blue","title":{"rendered":"Cheryl Dunye on her CineMart project Black Is Blue: \u201cthe power of film to be a tool for reflection\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rotterdam favourite Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman<\/strong>, IFFR 1997) talks to us about returning to the festival for a Big Talk at IFFR 2025 together with Argentinian filmmaker Albertina Carri (\u00a1Caigan las rosas blancas!<\/strong>, IFFR 2025 Big Screen Competition), and to present her dynamic new project Black Is Blue<\/strong> at CineMart, which she describes as a sci-fi trans erotic thriller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Set in the near future within the dystopian tech boomtown of Oakland, California, Cheryl Dunye\u2019s CineMart project Black Is Blue<\/strong> strikes a cautionary (and very timely) note as it tells the erotic tale of a black trans couple brought together by AI technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the film, Blue is a 40-something black trans woman who was once a successful tech executive at SentiTech Robotic, a multinational that gained control of the world\u2019s largest DNA database used to find a cure for all genetic diseases. Black is a doomed 30-something POC transman trying to land a job as an AI programmer, all the time dreaming of a better life. Lison, meanwhile, is an elegant genderless AI “friend-bot” whose status is elevated within the narrative as they bear witness to the sensuous tale of Blue and Black as it unfolds in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI see less and less of queer and trans and people of colour involved in that conversation\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The new feature is an elaboration on a 20-minute film Dunye made in 2014 of the same name. Back then, she had just moved to the Bay Area of California and was beginning to see the panoply of new gender identities that were emerging, and therefore felt at home. Nevertheless, she could also observe an emerging gender disparity in the field of tech and within the workplace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cheryl Dunye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, when I started to look at queer folks who are trans and of colour and who really look like me \u2013 masculine-presenting etc \u2013 they weren’t having the same agency as the sort of white, queer, trans masculine-presenting folk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI was a growing (\u201cbubbling\u201d) industry back then, and now it is a fully-fledged one, she further points out. \u201c[And] I see less and less of queer and trans and people of colour involved in that conversation, involved in our futures, involved in what the future could look like with us in there. It’s a clear obliteration of it. And as we move into this new democracy \u2013 if we want to call it democracy \u2013 I’m sure we’re going to see, for the next four years\u2026more and more using our lives as a way to just control folks like me and many of the folks involved in the project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence Dunye\u2019s urgency in making this new feature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this is a film that, for me, goes back to my roots of filmmaking,\u201d she says. \u201cFor the last seven years, I’ve been an episodic television director making other people’s work, but not my own. Prior to that, I had made a film Mommy is Coming<\/strong> (2012) with J\u00fcrgen Br\u00fcning, who is one of the producers on this project. The Owls<\/strong> (2010) I did independently.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe power of film to be a tool for reflection\u2026on the margins or the inside or the outside of what’s going on in society\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen we get into other projects all the way back to The Watermelon Woman <\/strong>(IFFR 1997),\u201d Dunye adds of her feature debut which explored the history of black women and lesbians in film. \u201cMost of those projects have lived a life as part of cinema in the world globally. It always feels good to be part of the global conversation and representing my oeuvre within the context of the world and [its] issues, and the power of film to be a tool for reflection\u2026on the margins or the inside or the outside of what’s going on in society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Film still: The Watermelon Woman<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I’m really excited to be able to step outside of this episodic world and go back to where I started and work with a family and with a way of filmmaking that is at my heart,\u201d Dunye underlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The director cites Alex Garland\u2019s Ex Machina <\/strong>(2014) as a reference for potential investors at CineMart. \u201cLike our film, [it] also examines the humanity of humanoid creations. Suppose Ex Machina<\/strong> is a film that challenges how male and female identities are constructed by a cismale-dominated society as much as by biology. In that case, visually and thematically, Black Is Blue<\/strong> similarly challenges how artificial intelligence characters in films have historically left out trans humanoids and\/or humanoids of colour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI think this is the right market to find those people who want to make that happen\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dunye\u2019s cinematic approach to her new film is equally intriguing. \u201cBlack Is Blue<\/strong> takes the cadence of a speculative thriller\u2014a touch of Wilder\u2019s Sunset Boulevard<\/strong>, a swish of Mary Shelley\u2019s \u2018Frankenstein\u2019 \u2013 and melds it with the architecture of tech advances in the development of AI companions. All of this is held together by the emotional urgency of trans romance, the kind between characters we\u2019ve never seen at the helm of a feature film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to give my audiences, my Hollywood folks, my followers and anybody<\/em> who wants to watch the film, a great cinematic experience\u2026and I think this is the right market to find those people who want to make that happen,\u201d Dunye adds of her attendance at IFFR Pro, where she will also engage in a Big Talk conversation with equally legendary filmmaker Albertina Carri to reflect on their experiences creating spaces for underrepresented voices on the big screen with boldness and sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cMarten and I go way back\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dunye is also looking forward to hooking up again with new IFFR Pro Head Marten Rabarts, with whom she collaborated when he was Artistic Director of the ground-breaking Binger Filmlab. \u201cMarten and I go way back \u2013 that was around the early 2000s, so I’ve known him for quite some time. We both have shape-shifted, but I’m so glad to see Marten in his inaugural year at IFFR Pro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Talk: Cheryl Dunye & Albertina Carri<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 4 February, 20.00<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentinian director Albertina Carri returns to Rotterdam to present her latest film (\u00a1Caigan las rosas blancas!<\/a><\/strong>, IFFR 2025) as part of the Big Screen competition, after her Hubert Bals Fund-supported first feature\u00a0No quiero volver a casa<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was screened in 2001.\u00a0Renowned for their daring explorations of unconventional narratives and complex identities at the intersections of personal and collective memory, two legendary filmmakers will reflect on their experiences creating spaces for underrepresented voices on the big screen with boldness and sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

\n\t\t\n\t\t