Highlights include Filmmaker Awards Brunch, spotlight screening of ‘Genius: MLK/X’, ArtFest, and dozens of screenings of films
The last day of the Pan African Film & Arts Festival is today, Monday, February 19, 2024.
The film festival will take place at Cinemark Baldwin Hills & XD and the ArtFest featuring over 100 fine artists from throughout the African Diaspora will take place at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and Cinemark Baldwin Hills & XD, 4020 Marlton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90008.
The events today include ARTFEST from 10AM - 9PM at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. The PAFF ArtFest features over 100 established and emerging fine artists and unique craftspeople from all over the world. With an artistic aesthetic that is rooted in Africa and its Diaspora, featured artists present their creative works using oil on canvas, watercolor and pastels, acrylic paper, glass, ceramics, metal, cloth, plastic, wax, wire, leather, and stone. In addition to fine art and one-of-a-kind crafts, the ArtFEST also features the best in designer and traditional fashions, jewelry, home decor, fashion accessories and so much more!
Representing the perfect mix of both art and culture, the PAFF ArtFEST brings out over 100K+ visitors from all over Los Angeles, across the country, and around the world.
FILMMAKER AWARDS BRUNCH is at 11: 00 a.m. at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 2nd Floor Bridge
Celebrating the best in Black independent storytelling at the 2024 PAFF Filmmaker Awards Brunch and announcing the winners of this year’s film festival audience and jury awards.
‘GENIUS: MLK/X’ will screen at 7:00 p.m. at the Cinemark Baldwin Hills & XD.
ABOUT THE FILM
GENIUS: MLK/X follows both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) and Malcom X (Aaron Pierre) from their formative years, where they were molded by strong fathers and traumatic injustices, to their rich, parallel stories as they shaped their identities and became the change they wished to see in the world. The docudrama series offers an intimate look into their complex lives as husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, taking them off the iconic T-shirts to show their humanity. GENIUS: MLK/X brings their wives, Coretta Scott King (Weruche Opia) and Betty Shabazz (Jayme Lawson), who are often portrayed as peripheral figures, to the forefront and shows them as formidable equals of the Movement. Episodes will explore the moments between the monumental historical events we’ve come to know and shine a light on how each leader and those closest to them questioned their resolve and decisions as they navigated the rigors of balancing a public persona with a private life. While King and X met only once and often challenged each other’s views, neither would have been as successful without the other.
Following the screening there will be a Q&A with Reggie Rock Bythewood – Executive Producer, Gina Prince-Bythewood – Executive Producer, Raphael Jackson Jr. – Executive Producer and Showrunner, Damione Macedon – Executive Producer and Showrunner and Weruche Opia, who protrays Coretta Scott King.
ABOUT THE PAN AFRICAN FILM & ARTS FESTIVAL:
The 32nd Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) makes its return to Los Angeles February 6-19, 2024 at the Cinemark Baldwin Hills XD and Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to present and showcase a broad spectrum of Black creative works, particularly those that reinforce positive images and help to destroy negative stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans.
Since 1992, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, PAFF has remained dedicated to the promotion of Black stories and images through the exhibition of film, visual art, and other creative expression. Today, PAFF is one of the largest and most prestigious Black film festivals in the U.S. and attracts local, national, and international audiences. In addition, it is an Oscar-qualifying festival for animation and live-action films, and one of the largest Black History Month events in America.
PAFF is supported in part by the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, LA Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, LA Councilmember Curren Price, LA Councilmember Heather Hutt, LA County Department of Arts and Culture, the LA County COVID-19 Arts Relief Fund administered by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, Senator Steve Bradford, and Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas.
The 2024 PAFF is possible through the generous support of sponsors including Color Creative, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Stocker Street Creative, Disney, Andscape, BET+, Paramount Pictures, National Geographic, Black Alliance for Justice Immigration, Cal State University, Los Angeles.
For more information, please visit paff.org.