Havana Divas

Havana Divas (96min, 2019)
Screening and discussion with director S. Louisa Wei
Tuesday, April 7, 2:15-4:30pm
721 Broadway, R 670

Caridad Amaran and Georgina Wong learned the art of Cantonese opera in 1930s Havana. Caridad’s mentor was her foster father, Julian Fong, who immigrated to Cuba in the 1920s after his family forbade him performing opera. Georgina’s father was a famous tailor in Chinatown, who encouraged her to learn Kungfu and lion dance. Although both were the single children, they formed a sisterhood on stage. Throughout the 1940s, Caridad toured cities all over Cuba with Chinese communities, as one of the leading actresses of the opera troupe. Georgina quit opera to attend college, but her study was interrupted by Castro’s 1959 revolution and her required military service. Eventually, she went on to become a diplomat. After retirement and well into their sixties, the two sisters are trying to perform Cantonese opera again. Will they find a stage? Will they find an audience?

Presented by the Asian Film & Media Initiative, The Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Open to NYU community. Valid NYU ID required. First come, first seated.

About the Director

S. Louisa Wei holds a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Alberta, Canada, and is a Professor of Cinematic Arts and Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. An independent documentary filmmaker, she became a member of the Hong Kong Directors Guild in 2018 and has served as a juror for the Hong Kong Film Awards. Wei has written and directed several acclaimed works, including Storm under the Sun (2009), Golden Gate Girls (2014), and Havana Divas (2018). Her films have garnered international recognition, receiving attention from major media outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and the BBC.

As a scholar, Wei has published numerous articles on women in Sinophone cinema and authored four significant works, including Esther Eng: Ocean-crossing Film and Women Pioneers, which won the Hong Kong Book Award in 2017. Her monographs on China’s intellectual history, such as Wang Shiwei: A Reform in Thinking and Hu Feng: Poetic Ideals, Political Storm, have received critical acclaim and multiple print runs. Wei's contributions to both film and scholarship reflect her commitment to exploring the roles of women in cinema and the intersections of culture and history.