Toni Adeyemi, a senior in media studies at the University of San Francisco, and Karina Hodoyán, an associate professor in the Spanish Studies program and director of the Master's in Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, interview filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. The conversation took place across different media platforms and moments in time, and focuses on both Dunye's past work and her recent directorial transition into new platforms of filmmaking and storytelling, including directing episodic television. Dunye mentions the politicization of the breaking of the “fourth wall,” and the advent of social-media storytelling about identity, race, gender, and queer desire. She also discusses her current project Black Is Blue, a work in progress set in the future about a love affair between a trans couple in Oakland. The figures show a related Instagram project touching on Dunye's many influences as well as instances of fourth-wall breaking in contemporary television.
The Fourth Wall: Women of Vision Revisited
Toni Adeyemi is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer and filmmaker who is interested in the ways pop culture affects the public at large and the private lives of those who consume it.
Karina Hodoyán is an associate professor of modern and classical languages and director of the Master's in Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco. Her fields of interest are Mexican, US-Mexico border, and Chicanx literary and cultural studies; visual and performance studies; and gender and sexuality studies. Her most recent publication is “Fronteras transgredidas: performance chicano y mexicano en las Californias,” an essay in the anthology edited by Josefina Alcázar, Arte-acción y performance de los muchos Méxicos (Center for Latin/a American Studies in the Americas, 2016).
Cheryl Dunye is a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, and actress. She is a lesbian, and her work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to Black lesbians.
Toni Adeyemi, Karina Hodoyán, Cheryl Dunye; The Fourth Wall: Women of Vision Revisited. Feminist Media Histories 1 October 2019; 5 (4): 68–75. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2019.5.4.68
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