Pan African Film Festival

Feb 7 2013

Hollywood by Choice

What can I say about Lynn Whitfield that hasn’t been said before? It’s no wonder the Pan African Film Festival will bless the award-winning actress with its highest honor, a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in television and film. Her career has spanned some 30 years thus far, and she is as beautiful, graceful and glamorous as the first day she set foot in Hollywood.

Feb 7 2013

The huge festival opens today

The 12-year-old wears neat pigtails. Her dry, black skin seems to match the barren surroundings of her village, which is void of vegetation with the exception of a few weeds and battered corn stalks that resemble plant fossils against the backdrop of a doom-colored sky.

Apr 12 2012

A long view of a historical reality

When author Suzanne Collins created the “The Hunger Games” trilogy, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem, she simultaneously created social debates on race. The fictional country consists of a wealthy capital and twelve surrounding districts. District 11 is the home of Rue and Thresh, who are supporting characters in both the book and the movie, and it is depicted as an area near what had once been Atlanta, Ga. 

Gail Choice  |   OW Contributor
Feb 9 2012

PAFF institute, fashion show, children's festival planned

The Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) celebrates its 20th anniversary starting this evening with the opening-night gala and screening of the Los Angeles premiere of “Think Like a Man.”
Based on the New York Times best-selling book by television-and-radio host and comic, Steve Harvey. The ensemble cast includes Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Kevin Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence J, Jenifer Lewis, Romany Malco, Gary Owen, Gabrielle Union and Chris Brown.

Gregg Reese  |   OW Staff Writer
Jun 9 2011

Geronimo Pratt was 63

Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, the Vietnam War-hero-turned-Black Panther who became a cause célèbre for the leftist leaning counter culture, has died in his adopted Tanzanian homeland of a heart attack. He was 63 years old, and is survived by a daughter and three sons.

Ayuko Babu, a fixture of the activist movement of that era and the current director of the Pan African Film Festival, summed up the legacy of Geronimo ji-Jaga (the name he adopted) thusly:

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.