Evading Capture: Black Women in Cinema—Diva with Singer Abiodun Koya and Scholar Tiffany Barber

In celebration of the exhibition Simone Leigh, filmmaker and Leigh's collaborator Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich presents Evading Capture: Black Women in Cinema, a guest-curated film series exploring what happens after refusal. When desire is too bold or too risky to reveal, Black women have created other ways to express themselves—ways that blur the line between subject and object.

The program begins with a special online selection of short films, offering glimpses into bold and imaginative storytelling—from outlaws to orphans and beyond. Then, join us in person for a screening of Diva, the story of a singer who chooses to keep her art on her own terms. The evening includes a pre-show performance by classical singer Abiodun Koya and a post-screening conversation between Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and scholar, curator, and critic Tiffany Barber.

Diva
Jean-Jacques Beineix
France, 1982, 117 minutes, French with English subtitles
Cast: Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi, Richard Bohringer
Color, projected in 35mm

Jules (Frédéric Andréi) goes on the run from every conceivable pursuer—from drug dealers and music pirates to the cops—after obtaining a recording of the woman of his dreams, the never-recorded opera star Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez).