The world’s eyes will be centered on Los Angeles for the next two weeks as the biggest black film festival kicked off Thursday with a press conference featuring festival co founder, Danny Glover, festival executive director, Ayuko Babu, and Alfons Adetuyi, director of the festival’s opening night film “Love Jacked.”
Marking the debut of some of the year’s most exciting independent films, as well as shorts and documentaries, this year there are several films by and about women being screened including Woye Apolline Traoré film “Borders,” which follows four African women from different regions bonding during a bus journey across West Africa.
With 173 movies screening at the festival from five continents and the addition of a new #Talk4Reel panel series, Babu, at the press conference highlighted the importance of the festival and admitted the Trump administration’s travel restrictions and dismissive comments about Africa had not deterred foreign filmmakers from submitting projects and attending the prestigious film festival.
“We as black people have dealt with Trumps of the world for many years and when he says s—hole countries he is talking about us. We have a goal and we have films and art we want to show. It just makes us do more and push to get more films made and change our narrative by showing 150 plus films that shed a positive light on Africa. We used to go to Cuba when there was a ban on Cuba. It just makes us more determined.”
Visit https://www.paff.org/films/ for more information
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television and film. She can be reached at [email protected]. Photos courtesy of Royalty Image
Leave a Reply