Screening: The Watermelon Woman

Beandrea July (@beandreadotcom) is a Los Angeles-based independent film critic, podcast host, and film programmer. Her writing in The New York Times on women aged 50+ in film has helped secure millions in financing for projects featuring this demographic. She joined the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 2020. As a 2024 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard, she researched early Black film criticism. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, and Time, and has been featured on NPR. She is a film programmer at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the second-largest of its kind in the US after the Library of Congress. A University of Pennsylvania alum, she began her career covering public education in Philadelphia. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, her cinematic comfort food is Sidney Poitier’s 1980s dance flick Fast Forward.

Founded in 1952, One Institute (formerly ONE Archives Foundation) is the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the country, dedicated to telling LGBTQ+ history and stories through education, arts, and social justice programs. Our one-of-a-kind exhibitions and public programs connect LGBTQ+ history and contemporary culture to effect social change. Through unique K-12 teacher trainings, lesson plans, and youth mentorship programs, we empower the next generation of teachers and students to bring queer history into classrooms and communities. As the independent community partner of ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, we promote the largest collection of LGBTQ+ materials in the world.