Month: February 2022

October 1

October 1 (PAFF 2015)
Narrative/Nigeria/143min/2014
Director: Kunle Afolayan

Set in 1960, this psychological thriller details the investigation of police detective Dan Waziri, who is dispatched to a small town in western Nigeria to find the serial killer of young women. Set against the backdrop of the national celebratory mood of the impending Nigerian independence, Waziri is pulled into a game of cat and mouse as he and the killer try to outwit one other. Nominee, Jury Best Narrative Feature, PAFF 2015; Programmers’ Award-Narrative Feature, PAFF 2015

The Case of the Three Sided Dream

The Case of the Three Sided Dream (PAFF 2015)
Documentary/US/87min/2014
Director: Adam Kahan

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was a one-of-a-kind musician, satirist, and windmill-slayer, who despite being blind, becoming paralyzed, and facing America’s racial injustices – did not relent. His life’s work was exploring sound and making music. As an outspoken activist, he started a political movement to get more exposure to Jazz on American television. A generous musical soundtrack, archival footage, and interviews with family, friends, and colleagues create a mesmerizing portrait of this super-human, multi-instrumental musical force who played his music literally until the day he died. Special Jury Recognition-Documentary, PAFF 2015

Rattlesnakes

Rattlesnakes (PAFF 2019)
Narr/UK/US/86min/2019
Director: Julius Amedume

Based on Graham Farrow's acclaimed stage-play RATTLESNAKES, award-winning writer/director Julius Amedume’s Neo-Noir psychological thriller tells the story of Robert McQueen, whose typical day takes a turn for the worse when he’s ambushed by three masked men who accuse him of sleeping with their wives. He pleads his innocence, but what he does reveal will not only change all of their lives forever – but will it be enough to save his? Stars Jimmy Jean-Louis. Audience Award - Narrative Feature, PAFF 2019; Best African Diaspora Director, AMAA 2019; Best Feature Film, Africa International Film Festival, 2019

Caged Birds

Caged Birds (PAFF 2021)
Narrative/US/87min/2021
Director: Fredrick Leach

Jordan Lucas is an affluent, Black high school senior counting down the days until college. He’s constantly bullied and lacks the confidence to stand up for himself. When his prideful cousin, EJ, is humiliated by a white bully, Blake, he recruits Jordan and Kevonte, a bussed-in student from the other side of the tracks, to play a robbery prank on Blake. When the prank goes bad, the three boys struggle to avoid being caught. In the process, they are each forced to confront the personal demons that come with being Black in the suburbs. Best First Feature Director-Narrative, PAFF 2021

Coming From Insanity

Coming From Insanity (PAFF 2020)
Narrative/Nigeria/99min/2019
Director: Akinyemi Sebastian Akinropo

In the mid-nineties, 12-year-old Kossi, with genius-level intelligence, is one of many children trafficked through the Nigerian borders from Togo. He ends up with the Martin Family, an upper-middle-class family of four in Lagos. At their home, he will work overtime for his meals and shelter as a houseboy. Fast forward to the present day, Kossi is still a houseboy with the Martins. He dreams of a better life, but with barely any education, he knows his future is compromised. He relies on his natural abilities and talent to carve out a way for himself, soon discovering the art of counterfeit money printing and floating the most flawless counterfeit dollars in the Eastern Hemisphere. Soon out on his own, he employs the services of a few friends and grows the operation substantially, landing him on the radar of a young determined currency agent who will stop at nothing to bring him to justice. A genuine thriller that will have you on the end of your seat! Nominee, Best International Narrative Feature, American Black Film Festival 2020; Nominee, Best First Feature, PAFF 2020

Of Good Report

Of Good Report (PAFF 2014)
Narrative Feature/South Africa/101min/2013
Director: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka

Parker, a shy and mysterious high school teacher, arrives at his new assignment in a rural school. While he is earnest in his passion for teaching, his extra-curricular attentions are drawn to a gorgeous young girl. When he realizes she is a student at his very school - and forbidden fruit - he grows increasingly obsessed. When the girl goes missing, a female detective comes snooping around, fueling Parker’s unstable, even dangerous, behavior. A modern-day classic film noir that will in time prove to be a milestone in Pan African film. Stars Mothusi Magano, Petronella Tshuma, Thobi Mkhwanazi, Nomhlé Nkyonyeni and Tshamano Sebe. Best Feature Film, Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in Nigeria. Jury Best Narrative Feature, PAFF 2014; PAFF/BAFTA LA Prize, PAFF 2014

Bigman Wahala

Bigman Wahala (PAFF 2020)
Narrative/Ghana/101min/2019
Director: Daniel Adjokatcher

A corrupt government minister tries to escape the military in the aftermath of a coup d’etat. He enlists the help of a poor struggling taxi driver to take him to the border. Their conversations and encounters during their journey reveal much about themselves and the events leading up to that point. A road movie like no other. Stars Oscar Provencal, one of Ghana’s finest actors. Nominee, Best First Feature, PAFF 2020

Back of the Moon

Back of the Moon
Narrative/South Africa/96min/2018
Director: Angus Gibson

The date July 28, 1958. Tomorrow, legions of police will force the residents of Gerty Street, Sophiatown out of their homes and they will be trucked to a desolate township, ten miles outside of Johannesburg. Badman, an intellectual and the leader of the most powerful gang in Sophiatown, lives life on his own terms in this crazy, cosmopolitan, half-demolished ghetto on the edge of Johannesburg. The gorgeous Eve Msomi, a torch-singer on the brink of an international career, is giving her last concert in the local hall before she travels to London. Refusing to face the bleak reality of Black South African life, Badman has decided that when the police come, he will not move and will fight to the death for his home. But fate thrusts Eve, whom he has loved from a distance, into his orbit. A stylishly beautiful film with a great soundtrack that captures the mood, the violence, and yes, the beauty in apartheid South Africa. Best South African Feature Film, Durban International Film Festival 2019; Best International Narrative Feature, Black Film Festival Montreal 2020

41st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers

1st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers (PAFF 2010)
Documentary/US/130min/2010
Director: Gregory Everett

The first of a two-part documentary follows the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party from its glorious Black Power beginnings through to its tragic demise. Despite the Party’s formation of free medical clinics and a successful children’s breakfast program, the L.A. chapter was known as the most violent Black political group in the United States. Through interviews and archival footage, this must-see film explores the Black Panther ethos, its conflict with the L.A.P.D. and the US Organization as well as the events that shaped its complicated and often contradictory legacy. Detailing the history of racism in Los Angeles and the communities response, it includes a historical analysis of the Watt’s uprising from the perspective of the participants, the formation of the Party as told by the original surviving members, and an eyewitness account of the Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins murders at UCLA in 1968. Featuring are interviews with Black Panther Party leaders Geronimo Ji Jagga, Elaine Brown, Ericka Huggins, Roland & Ronald Freeman, Wayne Pharr, Jeffrey Everett, Long John Washington, and Muhammad Mubarak, as well as, former L.A.P.D. Chief Bernard Parks, US Organization member Wesley Kabaila, UCLA Professor Scot Brown, and many others.

Audience Award Documentary Feature Film, PAFF 2010

Agents of Change

Agents of Change (PAFF 2016)
Documentary/US/64min/2016
Director: Abby Ginzberg & Frank Dawson

The images still hold a charge: graphic footage of student demonstrators at San Francisco State in 1968 being beaten and arrested by police and the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo the following year of black students with rifles emerging from the Cornell University student union building they had briefly occupied. These images are the entry points to a powerful but little-known civil rights story: the struggle that erupted for more inclusive and meaningful higher education across America at the end of a tumultuous decade. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision mandated the integration of American schools “with all deliberate speed.” It wasn’t until the late 1960s that a critical mass of African American students began entering the nation’s colleges and universities. Agents of Change tells the story of what they encountered, how they responded, and the continuing impact of the dramatic confrontations that followed. Instead of being accepted as they were, incoming Black students were expected to shed their identities and assimilate mentally as well as socially into ‘lily white’ college campuses. Many students dealt with racial slurs, taunts, and threats from faculty as well as from other students. Denied facilities and services provided to white classmates, they were often the recipients of unfair campus judicial proceedings. But they refused to take these provocations lying down. They organized, protested, negotiated, and transformed their schools. Agents of Change introduces a cast of largely unrecognized but remarkable characters, whose commitment to justice and equality paved the way for the opportunities that followed, while also reminding viewers about the work yet to be done to achieve full equity and dignity on campus and in society. How is it that so much and so little has changed? This film helps answer that question.

Sponsored by Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center
PAFF 2016 Best Documentary
PAFF 2016 Audience Award-Documentary