Black History Month: Three Black Queer Filmmakers You Should Know
Black Queer filmmakers should always be on your watchlist — but especially during February. Here are three quintessential voices in film that you should dive into this Black History Month!
CHERYL DUNYE
Decade: 1990s
Queer New Wave heavyweight Cheryl Dunye is a Liberian-American director who is best-known as the first out Black lesbian to ever direct a feature film.
While THE WATERMELON WOMAN (1996) is her most popular film, her other features and plethora of short films blend narrative and documentary — what the director calls “dunye-mentaries” — explore race, gender, and sexuality, primarily focusing on the lives of Black lesbians.
In 1993, NewFest and the African Ancestral Lesbians United for Social Change hosted “An Evening with Cheryl Dunye,” highlighting “Janine,” “She Don’t Fade,” “The Potluck and the Passion,” and “Vanilla Sex.” In 1995, Dunye received NewFest’s Vito Russo Award to finish THE WATERMELON WOMAN, which was the Closing Night Film at NewFest8 in 1996.
Dunye has returned to NewFest a number of times over the past three decades. Just last year she returned with STRANGER INSIDE (2001) at Queering the Canon: So Obsessed, and in January 2026 she spoke at Cheers, Queers! at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, an event co-hosted with GLAAD and Frameline.
Follow along with Dunye on her Instagram.
PATRIK-IAN POLK
Decade: 2000s
Patrik-Ian Polk’s work in film and television has shaped a generation of gay Black men across the country. His directorial debut PUNKS (2000), which he also wrote and produced, premiered at Sundance and was nominated for the GLAAD Media Award and the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award in 2002. Following PUNKS, Polk created the legendary TV series Noah’s Arc, following the lives of several gay Black men in Los Angeles. Noah’s Arc focused on issues like same-sex dating and marriage, HIV and AIDS awareness, homophobia, promiscuity, parenthood, and more.
Polk joined us for Queering the Canon: Rom-Coms in 2022 for a rare screening of PUNKS, followed by a Q&A.
See what Polk does next on Instagram.
DEE REES
Decade: 2010s
Dee Rees hit the scene running in 2011 with her debut film PARIAH. This contemporary classic has been named one of the best films of the 21st Century by the Hollywood Reporter, was ranked in the top 10 in AutoStraddle’s 100 Best Lesbian Movies Of All Time, and was the first narrative feature from the 2010s chosen for induction into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Rees’ work continues to shine, working alongside thee Queen Latifah in her 2015 Emmy-Award winning film BESSIE, and as she is the first African-American woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, for MUDBOUND.
Ree’s masterpiece PARIAH had a 10th Anniversary screening at NewFest33 in 2021.