The Western ‘Outlaw Posse’ directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Cedric The Entertainer, will premiere as the closing night feature at the 2024 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles on February 18th.
Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF)
Since 1992, The Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) has become the international beacon for the Diaspora arts community.
As the largest Black History Month events in the U.S., every year filmmakers, fine artists, and unique craftspeople from over 40 countries and 6 continents converge upon Los Angeles to showcase their pivotal work. PAFF has become a global celebration of Pan African cultures.
Annually, PAFF continues to showcase over 190 new high-quality Black films from the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, the South Pacific, Canada, and increasingly, Asia.
Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) started in 1992 and takes place in Los Angeles, CA
-
Mario Van Peebles ‘Outlaw Posse’ Film to Close Pan African Film Festival | Trailer
Outlaw Posse (Quiver Distribution / screenshot)
-
Caribbean Filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon’s HERO to Open Pan African Film Festival
HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Revolutionary Life and Times of Diplomat and Judge Ulric Cross The 28th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) will open with the film “HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Revolutionary Life and Times of Diplomat and Judge Ulric Cross,” directed by Caribbean filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon.
-
Aretha Franklin’s AMAZING GRACE to Open 2019 Pan African Film & Arts Festival
Amazing Grace Aretha Franklin’s spine-tingling and uplifting Amazing Grace, a rare gem in the crown of the late musical genius, will open this year’s 27th Pan African Film & Arts Festival. The documentary film was originally directed by Sydney Pollack in 1972 at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California but remained unreleased due to technical and rights issues.
-
Pan African Film & Arts Festival Announces 2018 Winners + Reveals 2019 Dates
[caption id="attachment_27178" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
(L to R) Borders (Frontières) director, Woye Apolline Traore, and Senagalese actress, Amelie Mbaye, take home coveted staff awards for “Best Narrative Feature.”
Photo Credit: Venus Bernardo Photography[/caption] After 12 full days of showcasing an impressive slate of 173 films, the 26th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) announced the winners of its 2018 season. Borders (Frontières) directed by Woye Apolline Traoré was awarded the prize for Best Narrative Feature, and Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me directed by Samuel D. Pollard was awarded the prize for Best Documentary Feature. The 27th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival will take place February 7 through February 18, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.26th Pan African Film & Arts Festival Winners
Best Narrative Feature Borders (Frontières) (Burkina Faso) Directed by: Woye Apolline Traoré Best Director-First Feature Narrative Kalushi (South Africa) Directed by: Mandlakayise Dube Best Documentary Feature Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me (US) Directed by: Samuel D. Pollard Best Narrative Short Kyenvu (Yellow) (Uganda) Directed by: Kemiyondo Coutinho Best Documentary Short Mama (US) Directed by: Nicholas Brennan Programmers’ Award-Narrative or Documentary Short Lalo’s House (Haiti/US) Directed by: Kelley Kali Programmers’ Award-Documentary Barrow-Freedom Fighter (Barbados) Directed by: Marcia Weekes Programmers’ Award-Narrative Feature Love Jacked (South Africa) Directed by: Alfons Adetuyi PAFF Directors’ Award-Feature Documentary (TIE) King of Stage: The Woodie King Jr. Story (US) Directed by: Juney Smith Maynard (US) Directed by: Samuel D. Pollard PAFF Directors’ Award- Feature Narrative The Train of Salt and Sugar (Mozambique/South Africa) Directed by: Licínio Azevedo Audience Award- Documentary Short ’63 Boycott (US) Directed by: Gordon Quinn Audience Award- Documentary Feature Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me (US) Directed by: Samuel D. Pollard Audience Award- Narrative Short For Evan’s Sake (US) Directed by: Kirstin Lorin Audience Award- Narrative Feature Muslimah’s Guide to Marriage (US) Directed by: Aminah Bakeer Abdul-Jabbaar
-
2018 Pan African Film & Arts Festival Reveals Highlights, Opens with “Love Jacked”
[caption id="attachment_26705" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Love Jacked[/caption]
The 26th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) will take place Thursday, February 8 through Monday, February 19, 2018. The festival will open with Love Jacked directed by Alfons Adetuyi, and close with Traffik directed by Deon Taylor, starring Paula Patton, Omar Epps and Laz Alonso.
“The Pan African Film and Arts Festival has been recognized as one of the largest celebrations of Black culture and Black films,” mentions Ayuko Babu, PAFF Executive Director. “For 26 years, we have presented diverse and inclusive programming that features the creative work of leading disruptors in film and entertainment. The 2018 PAFF experience aims to step outside the ‘business as usual’ film festival norms and move the needle forward by amplifying the game-changing voices of influential, ethnic, millennial and LGBTQIA storytellers.”
With pride, PAFF shares reign as one of two international film and art festivals that screen a large selection of new Black films and exhibit fine art and unique crafts from around the world. This year’s confirmed lineup showcases over 170 films from over 40 countries within five continents and in 26 languages! What’s more, as an official Oscar-qualifying festival for shorts and live-action films, PAFF will hold special screenings for several works that are up for consideration for the 90th Annual Academy Awards
The festival will be held at the Cinemark Rave 15 Theatres/Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza (3650 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) in Los Angeles, California.
Highlights of the 2018 Pan African Film & Arts Festival
MARQUEE FILMS OPENING NIGHT Love Jacked (US) Directed By: Alfons Adetuyi Date: Thursday, February 8 Time: 6PM Red Carpet | 7PM Screening A warm family comedy centered around Maya, a headstrong 28-year-old with artistic ambitions and her father Ed, who wants a dutiful daughter to run the family store. Ed is shocked when Maya, asserting her independence, decides to travel to Africa for inspiration and returns with a fiancé. Stars Amber Stevens-West, Shamier Anderson, Lyriq Bent, Keith David, Mike Epps, Marla Gibbs, Angela Gibbs, Demetrius Grosse and Nicole Lyn. Cast members will be present. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3XQ09nocQM CLOSING NIGHT Traffik (US) Directed By: Deon Taylor Date: Sunday, February 18 Time: 5:45PM Red Carpet | 6:45PM Screening Journalist Brea and her boyfriend John are off for a romantic weekend in the mountains. On their way up the coast they stop in a small town and are accosted by a group of men on motorcycles. Barely avoiding a fight, Brea and John continue on their trip, unaware that they have inadvertently come into possession of a cell phone–a cell phone that the bikers are desperate to retrieve. Now, alone in the mountains in an isolated rental home, Brea and John must defend themselves against the bikers who will stop at nothing to get the phone, destroy the evidence it holds and kill anyone who would tell their secrets. Stars Paula Patton, Omar Epps and Laz Alonso. Cast members will be present. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttOv6zVsl6E SPOTLIGHT SCREENINGS Behind the Movement (US) – Presented by TVOne Directed By: Aric Avelino Date: Friday, February 9 Time: 7PM Red Carpet | 8PM Screening King of the Stage: The Woodie King, Jr. Story (US) – World Premiere Directed By: Juney Smith Date: Saturday, February 10 Time: 6PM Red Carpet | 7:15PM Screening | 9PM Lifetime Achievement Presentation Nothing Like Thanksgiving (US) Directed By: Mark Harris Date: Saturday, February 17 Time: 7:15PM Red Carpet | 8PM Screening UP FOR OSCAR CONSIDERATION Félicité (Senegal) – Oscar Short List Directed By: Alain Gomis Screening Dates & Times: Friday, February 9 @ 8:50PM Saturday, February 17 @ 9PM The Train of Salt and Sugar (Mozambique) – LA Premiere Directed By: Licínio Azevedo Screening Dates & Times: Wednesday, February 14 @ 7:30PM Saturday, February 17 @ 8PM The Wound (Inxeba) (South Africa) – Oscar Short List Directed By: John Trengrove Screening Dates & Times: Saturday, February 10 @ 7:05PM Tuesday, February 13 @ 6PM Monday, February 19 @ 9PM Woodpeckers (Dominican Republic) Directed By: José Maria Cabral Screening Dates & Times: Saturday, February 10 @ 8:40PM Friday, February 16 @ 1:25PM Image via Screen Shot
-
Documentary GINA’S JOURNEY: THE SEARCH FOR WILLIAM GRIMES to World Premiere At Pan African Film Festival | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_20585" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Gina’s Journey: The Search for William Grimes[/caption]
Gina’s Journey: The Search for William Grimes, narrated by Keith David, follows the quest of one woman, Regina Mason, in tracing the steps of her ancestor, who traveled along the Underground Railroad to freedom and authored the first fugitive slave narrative in U.S. history. The film will world premiere at the 2017 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles February 17-18, 2017.
Produced by Your Media 2, the film is based on the Afterword of the authoritative edition of the book, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, written by Regina Mason and published in 2008 by Oxford University Press. The Afterword, “My Long Road Back to William Grimes” reveals Mason’s 15-year path to authenticate her ancestor’s story and the intense personal sacrifices that made editing and publishing a new edition of the Grimes narrative possible.
In making the film, Director and Producer Sean Durant sought to convey not only Mason’s long road to uncover her past, but also the unimaginable conditions that faced William Grimes as he struggled to free himself from slavery. To this end, Durant chose to use artfully-crafted re-enactments combined with current-day Mason reflecting on her own story and a masterful narration by Keith David. The result is a compelling and provocative documentary film from first time feature filmmaker Durant.
“Gina’s Journey: The Search for William Grimes” is an Official Selection of the 2017 Pan African Film Festival, which runs February 9th through 20th.
https://vimeo.com/119890622
-
Black Panthers Film to Open Pan African Film Festival
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the RevolutionDirector Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the Opening Night film of the 23rd Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF)
Triangle-Going to America will be highlighted as the Centerpiece selection and closing the Festival is The Man in 3B. All films will screen at RAVE Cinemas 15, located within the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 4200 Marlton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90008. The 23rd Annual Pan African Film Festival will take place in Los Angeles February 5-16, 2015.
Veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson brings his newest film to PAFF straight from Sundance Film Festival for its West Coast premiere. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution takes a look at the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, but also how it influenced how African-Americans look at themselves today. Whether they were right or wrong, whether they were good or bad, more than 40 years after the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, the group and its leadership remain powerful and enduring figures in our popular imagination. The Black Panthers is the first feature-length documentary to showcase the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for Black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. The film includes riveting eyewitness accounts from the first members who joined the organization when its founder, Huey P. Newton, was still alive as a young, brash upstart who confronted local police and American tradition with a loaded gun and a law book. This film weaves voices from varied perspectives who lived this story” police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters, and detractors, those who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Because the participants from all sides were so young in the 60s and 70s, they are still around to share firsthand accounts.
“PAFF is excited about hosting award-winning director Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution. This film is right on time. The issues that the Black Panther Party and other Black Power organizations dealt with in the 1960s continue to be the major issues confronting the black community today. The film offers a striking and compelling look at the personalities, the drama, the wit that come hurtling down to us in the present day. The film is an entertaining must-see for all who are looking to better understand where we are at this historical moment and where we might go in the future,” says PAFF Founder and Executive Director, Ayuko Babu.
Immigration has been the topic of many recent news reports and headlines, including President Obama taking bold new steps to fix America’s broken immigration system. Triangle-Going to America addresses this very issue. Each year, hundreds of Africans from Ethiopia, Eritrea and and throughout the African continent leave their countries to make the journey across the world with hope and dreams of coming to America. The film’s characters Kaleab and Jemal are willing to endure any danger to reach America and the promise of a better life. Along the way Kaleab meets Winta, an Eritrean beauty who is also making the journey. Together, they travel an arduous and illegal path wrought with danger, exploitation and death from East and North Africa through Italy, Mexico and finally to the United States. Triangle stars Solomon Bogale and Mahder Assefa, two of the most famous actors in Ethiopia.
“At PAFF, we always want to stay current with today’s domestic and international issues and be entertaining at the same time. Triangle fits into this vision. Immigration is not just an issue in the Latino community, but also affects the Black communities in the U.S. and Europe,” adds Babu.
The Man in 3B includes a star-studded cast, including Lamman Rucker, Billie D. Williams, Jackee Harry, Marla Gibbs, Brely Evans and more. Daryl Graham (Lamman Rucker) has just moved into a Jamaica, Queens, apartment building and his neighbors, male and female alike, can’t stop talking about him. From his extreme attractiveness to his undeniable swag, Daryl is the man every woman wants and every man wants to be.
PAFF Executive Director Ayuko Babu says, “PAFF loves to showcase films like The Man in 3B. There is an interesting twist in the storyline which is not usually found in romantic comedies. This film is entertaining and gives us insight into ourselves and encourages attitudes that are important to our development, which makes this the perfect closing night film at PAFF.”