Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is a non-profit corporation in Los Angeles, California, United States, that states its goal is to promote "cultural understanding among peoples of African descent" through exhibiting art and film. It hosts a film festival and an arts festival in Los Angeles in February of each year.[1] The Los Angeles Times in 2013 called the film festival "the largest black film festival" in the United States.[2]

Background

In its early years, it was held in West Africa, specifically in Burkina Faso (in February 1985, it was held in Ouagadougou and hosted by Thomas Sankara[3]).

The first official festival was organized in 1992 by actors Danny Glover and Ja'net Dubois and executive director Ayuko Babu.[4] Glover and actress Whoopi Goldberg co-hosted the festival.[5] It featured over 40 films by Black directors from four continents. The Los Angeles Times said the films had universal themes as well as African themes: "the overthrow of colonial governments, the clash between modern values and traditional values, and tales of gifted artists". Films at the first festival included Sarraounia, Heritage Africa, and Lord of the Street.[6] In 2013, the film festival attracted approximately 30,000 patrons, and the arts festival attracted around 75,000.[2] In 2014, the film festival featured 179 films from 46 countries. The films included feature-length documentaries, short documentaries, narrative feature films, narrative short films, and web series.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "About". Pan African Film Festival. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  2. ^ a b King, Susan (February 6, 2013). "The world comes calling at the Pan African Film & Arts Festival". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  3. ^ Sankara, Thomas (1988). Thomas Sankara Speaks (2nd ed.). Pathfinder Press. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-87348-986-7.
  4. ^ King, Susan (February 16, 2011). "The 19th Pan African Film Festival features eclectic lineup". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  5. ^ Marx, Andy (October 15, 1992). "Pan African Film Fest kicks off tonight at Laemmle". Variety. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  6. ^ Staff (October 17, 1992). "A Kaleidoscope of Continents: Inaugural film festival highlights beauty of pan-African experience". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  7. ^ Bennett, Wyllisa (January 30, 2014). "22nd Annual Pan African Film Festival Night of Tribute this Friday, January 31". EURweb. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2014.

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