The 19th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF), America’s largest Black film festival, scheduled Feb. 16-21, will showcase more than 150 new movies from Africa, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, South America, and Canada. This event, established in 1992, also features 100 Black fine artists and craftspeople, poetry readings, fashion shows, free forums, and panels.

PAFF’s goal is to present and showcase the broad spectrum of Black creative works, particularly those that reinforce positive images and help to destroy negative stereotypes. The festival founders believe that film and art can lead to better understanding and foster communication between peoples of diverse cultures, races, and lifestyles, while at the same time, serve as a vehicle to initiate dialogue on the important issues of our times.

This year the films will be shown between 10 a.m. and Midnight at Culver Plaza Theatre, 9919 Washington Blvd., L.A. For additional information, call (310) 337-4737.

Below find reviews of some of this year’s entries. For a complete list of movies and screening times, visit www.paff.org

‘Haunted’
A Kenyan horror film

By Juliana Norwood
OW Staff Writer

“Haunted” follows the life of Wairimu, played by Lydia Gitachu, a young writer who is struggling to create her latest novel. In order to overcome her writer’s block, she allows her brother to convince her to go away for a weekend—with him and his three friends—to the house where they grew up. Wairimu reluctantly agrees. Early into the movie we realize that the home has a dark past. Suddenly getting through the weekend isn’t as pleasant of a trip as was originally intended.

The five tour the home, joke and play games to pass the time in the massive, empty dwelling; that includes TK, played by Boniface Loppoh, an aspiring movie director who captures the mysterious events of the weekend on tape, increasing the already eerie vibe viewers see.

The story in “Haunted” was somewhat difficult to follow due to the heavy dialects of the characters, and I therefore found myself often times, just settling for understanding the gist of what the conversations were about, rather than having a solid understanding of what was going on.

In addition, some of the scenes seemed to be a little drawn out, quite possibly to add to the anticipation and dramatic effect of the film, but personally, at times I found myself wishing for a fast-forward button.

Overall, the movie was solid. The house where it was filmed was beautiful and it did keep me wondering what was going to happen next, which was definitely intentional. It may even make you jump a few times as well, which is to be expected from any good horror film.

‘Gang Girl’
Snapshot of teen life

By Stanley O. Williford  
OW Co-editor

“Gang Girl” is a gritty study of gang life, but from a mother’s point of view. Photojournalist Valerie Goodloe becomes suspicious that her teenage daughter, Nafeesa Tony, is a gang member. She discovers gang garb, including red tennis shoes, hidden under her bed. Rather than bewail her misfortune, Goodloe sets out to save her daughter.

But that proves difficult when Nafeesa continually runs away from home. Having photographed important politicians, including President Barak Obama, as well as various celebrities, Goodloe is not without resources. She also knows the streets. She burrows into Nafeesa’s world, using both her camera and a mother’s keen concern. She interviews gang girls, police and gang interventionists, trying to understand the fascination with danger.

We see that underneath Nafeesa’s hard exterior is a young lady crushed by her parents’ divorce and, as viewers suspect, wrestling with her own sexual longings. Still, we get inklings that Nafeesa might break through. Goodloe arranges for Nafeesa and other girls to go camping at Glynn Turman’s ranch. Nafeesa—surprisingly—graduates from high school. Throughout, we’ve steeled ourselves against an impending tragedy which, thankfully, never comes.

‘Money Matters’
Mother and daughter journey through life’s peaks and valleys

By Juliana Norwood
OW Staff Writer

Monique Matters aka “Money” is a 14-year-old girl at a crossroads. She is coming of age, which is especially difficult because her young single mother Pamela is having a difficult time holding it all together. She cares for Money the best way she knows how, getting her out of their dilapidated neighborhood and sending her to a private Catholic school in a better area … and doing anything else she can do to keep cash flowing in.

Trouble still finds Money, as she tries to find herself, while simultaneously struggling with fitting in, body image, sexuality, as well as discovering her family’s twisted past and what that means for the woman she is becoming.

Money’s narration of the story is told through her poetry, which gives viewers an even more personal experience with the young girl. Her outlook on life and religion are thought-provoking and make you question how in the middle of her complicated life there is still an obvious innocence left in her.

The best word to describe “Money Matters” is “gritty.” The harsh language and real-life situations draw you into the story and make you anxious to see just how Money and Pamela’s situations are going to pan out, and how the decisions that they have made are going to affect their futures.

‘Children of God’
Race and homophobia

By Gregg Reese
OW Contributor

The topic of homosexuality, a hot button issue across the globe, gets the benefit of a Caribbean viewpoint in “Children of God,” a film by emerging writer-director Kareem Mortimer, a filmmaker with nine movie titles to his credit. Shot in his native Bahamas, this narrative benefits from that island’s lush scenery, as it follows the interwoven paths of a White art student struggling to find his creative voice while coming to terms with his sexuality; a Black pastor’s wife who discovers her husband’s vicious homophobia is a cover for his dalliances with other men on the “down low;” and a Black musician escaping the confines of the inner city for the coast as he labors to hide his urges from his family.  

These fictional interpersonal convolutions are buttressed by the real-life controversy that surrounded comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s cruise ship for gay and lesbian families, when they visited the Bahamas in 2004.

Curiously, the issue of race has minimal or no implication in the film, even though an interracial romance (between the artist and musician) is central to the plot. The title is derived from the concept that the “Children of God” comprise all of humanity. This movie has been making the rounds of numerous festivals including the Toronto Film Festival, where it won an audience award. “Children of God” marks the first feature effort by Mortimer, who previously focused on documentaries, and heralds him as a talent to watch.