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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

Congo: White King, Red Rubber, BlackDeath

Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death (PAFF 2005)
Documentary/Belgium/Australia/Canada/Denmark/Finland/France/Germany/Nethe rlands/UK/92min/2003
Director: Peter Bate

A visually stunning docudrama revealing the true story of the terror and shocking brutality implemented by King Leopold II of Belgium as he created a wealthy empire by turning the Congo into a brutal labor camp for the harvest of rubber, resulting in the death and maiming of over 10 million people between 1885 and 1908. Documentary Honorable Mention, 2005 PAFF

Love Jacked

Love Jacked (PAFF 2018)
Narrative/Canada/South Africa/100min/2017
Director: Alfons Adetuyi

LOVE JACKED is a sophisticated small-town Romantic 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 who is not quite what he seems. Stars Amber Stevens-West, Shamier Anderson, Keith David, Mike Epps, Demetrius Grosse, Lyriq Bent, Marla Gibbs, Angela Gibbs, Nicole Lyn. Programmers’ Award-Narrative Feature, PAFF 2018

Ancestral Voices: Esoteric African Knowledge

Ancestral Voices: Esoteric African Knowledge (PAFF 2012)
Documentary/UK/73min/2011
Director: Dalian Adofo & Verona Spence

An enlightening documentary that examines the significant correlations between beliefs in “mainstream” religions and African spiritual practices which are widely stigmatized under labels such as juju, obeah, voodoo, and witchcraft. The question is raised: why in light of the many similarities in fundamental beliefs are African spiritual systems viewed negatively whereas modern religions are not? Nominee, Best Documentary, PAFF 2012

Along Came Wanda: Review

Year: 2021
Director and Writer: Jan Miller Corran
Starring: Constance Brenneman, Cathy DeBuono, Isabella Hofman, Monica Young, Rich Ceraulo Ko, Adam Huss, Roberta Hanlen, Carly Frintner, Kyla Harris, Monica Young
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes
Rating: Not yet rated
Country: United States
Language: English

Mary Beth and Wanda Along Came Wanda

You Can Try to Live-up to Other's Expectations or Live-up to Your Own

Jan Miller Corran's directorial debut 'Along Came Wanda' takes you on the journey of Mary Beth (Contance Brenneman)
following the break-up of her decades long marriage to Bill (Max Adler), that gave her her only son, Kevin (Hank Matusek),
as she sets out on a journey with her new friend Wanda, (Cathy DeBuono) in her RV.

We are giving a glimpse into an intimate part of Mary's life, when she is reminded of a past love.

Wanda encourages Mary Beth to return to her passion of photography and to enter a photography contest while out on the road. The relationship between Mary Beth and Wanda is front and center as their friendship grows and they become closer during their road trip. W

Wanda and Davina Along Came Wanda

Filmed during COVID-19 pandemic, art imitates life with the challenges of COVID-19 on marriages and relationships in general a crucial part of the film that has the characters talking about the pandemic, wearing masks and social distant.

There are a few scenes that stuck with me. One is Mary Beth talking to Wanda and telling her, "I grew up in a small midwestern town that come with expectations for their daughters, including grandchildren. It stayed with me because it goes to the heart of Mary Beth's struggles and the need to find herself.

The second is when Davina Moonbeam (Roberta Hanlen), a well-known psychic said to Wanda, "Just be. Set in the nowness." ("Just Be" is the film's theme song " composed by Monica Young and Richie Sullivan and sung by Monica Young). Reminder of the importance of being and enjoying the moment and letting things happen naturally instead of forcing a desired outcome.

Mary Beth and Wanda Along Came Wanda

Mary Beth breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to her viewers helps evoke a level of compassion for her and her plight, stands out as well.

Filming in Los Angeles was a good choice. The City has as variety of landscapes that captures the natural features of California.

Kanoa Wolfe-Doblin score works well with the scenes providing the right mood to help tell their story.

A journey of friendship, fun and discovery, 'Along Came Wanda' is a film to watch.

Distributor: buffalo 8 A Bondit Company
Producers: Jan Miller Corran, LeeAnee Matusek
Production Co.: Three women in a box films
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Starring: Contance Brenneman, Cathy DeBuono, Max Adler, Isabella Hofman, Monica Young, Rich Ceraulo Ko, Adam Huss, Roberta Hanlen, Hank Matusek,
Carly Frintner, Kyla Harris, Monica Young
Director and Writer: Jan Miller Corran
Cinematography: Cameron Schmucker
Editor: Josh Rifkin
Music: Kanoa Wolfe-Doblin