 Her first video, "Wild Thing", was an experimental adaptation of the live reading by the black lesbian author and poet Sapphire.Some of the other literary figures that Dunye recalls include Harriet Jacobs, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde and Fannie Hurst.Notably she has remarked that her work often brings to mind, American experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer and that she "[owes] Michelle Pakerson a lot."