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Last Updated: Apr 25th, 2008 - 15:14:44 |
I. A Tale of Two Cities
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| Bi Kidude, probably the oldest singer on the world, is profiled in the film "Old as My Tongue." |
In 1992, in both New York and Los Angeles, film festivals were launched that showcased independent films produced by or about Black people from around the globe. The African Diaspora Film Festival, or ADFF, is based in New York and the Pan-African Film Festival, or PAFF, is based in Los Angeles.
Both festivals had humble beginnings but are holding strong. Both are also partnered with other arts and film festivals around the country in addition to projects outside the U.S. This year at PAFF, Reinaldo Spech, co-founder of ADFF, accepted the award for "Youssou N’Dour: Return to Goree," which received the Best Documentary Film award. This honor signaled the connection between these two festivals, although they have no direct, official linkage.
The differences between the two festivals remind me of the differences between the Harlem Renaissance in New York and the Negritude Movement in Paris. Like both of these early 20th Century artistic movements, the differences between the two festivals contribute to their distinctiveness but do not overshadow their shared aspirations.
PAFF is the sister-festival to FESPACO, the largest film festival in Africa that occurs bi-annually in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. PAFF’s executive director, Ayuko Babu, travels to various countries in Africa collecting rare films but he also attends film festivals in Europe and occasionally serves a jury member at these festivals. In an interview, Babu spoke about the aims for the festival and the current constraints for films that focus on Black people. In a recorded interview, PAFF’s administrative manager, Moza Mjasiri-Cooper, discussed her involvement with the festival from her days of working at The United Nations to her decision to fully devote her efforts to the organization. In addition, Mjasiri-Cooper elaborated on key individuals who conceptually or financially supported Babu’s work and aspirations for several decades. These two conversations provide the evidence of the blossoming Black film festival in Los Angeles and its commitment to a larger arts and cinema movement.
II.
Moza Mjasiri-Cooper
Astride: So, it’s the largest Black international film festival. I spoke to Babu and he was explaining to me on how the festival started. I wanted to know about your end of the organization. I see a lot of women behind [the scenes].
Moza: Yes, and everybody is doing it with love. There’s no money but there is love, and the commitment, believe it or not, is what keeps the festival running. We have sponsors but many of our sponsors do not grant us 50 [thousand] or 100 [thousand]. Their grants are more like 20[thousand], 10 [thousand], and 5 [thousand]. Everybody else barters: “I’ll do this for you.” We are a community organization. We are not flamboyant, but we try to make our events gracious and great.
Astride: How long have you been working for the organization?
Moza: From day one. I was a volunteer. Babu, Asantewa and I met when we did the release of [Nelson] Mandela in 1990. And then the first meeting they had, they called me and we sat down. I didn’t know anything about festivals. I’ve learned a lot; I’ve grown a lot. I’m really grateful for the opportunity. Then, I volunteered for five years. Then, I got laid off at my job. I use to be a media buyer with an advertising agency.
Astride: Great background for this type of work.
Moza: Yeah. So, I came here [with my] hand, foot, hip attached to the table. The festival used to be seasonal. We finished in February. [Afterwards, the director and manager] use to run to FESPACO. They didn’t have a proper office. Then, they open an office in September.
When I got laid off, I said, “you know what, I’m going to do this full-time.” [I responded to their hesitations and doubts by saying:] “I have my unemployment, just let me work this” So with that creativeness and with the goodness of the gods, allowed us to have spare money and to fill in the blanks. We all don’t all live luxuriously but we all have love to give this festival.
Astride: It’s big. It gets bigger—
Moza: It gets bigger everyday. Were you there this morning [at the Awards Brunch]?
Astride: Yes.
Moza: We started here at this building, 3775 Rosalina Avenue with FIVE filmmakers in totality. There were ten people: Babu, Asantewa, Linda Bronson [-Abbott], myself and the filmmakers. We didn’t know how to do it but we did it. This morning when I saw all those people… I was like “My God.” I almost cried, you know. And then the art show…have you been to the mall?
Astride: Yeah, I have. I briefly scanned the area.
Moza: People come from all over. We normally have people from Africa, like Ghana and Nigeria. This year they are having problems with visas. So I have no idea…
Astride: There was this young male volunteer and he told me how last year there was a big Ghanaian presence.
Moza: Exactly, for the fifty-year anniversary [of Ghana’s independence]. We had all these artists from Africa. The year before [2006], it was South Africa’s tenth-year anniversary of independence. We had a big, big contingent of South Africans. That same year, they won the award. We had all these artists who came from South Africa. This year the weather must have prevented them from coming. They’re coming from Ohio, up north, Milwaukee; they drive through the country to arrive to the festival. Everybody is looking forward to it.…I’m excited. I’m really excited to be in the mix.
Astride: Are you planning to head to Atlanta for National Black Arts Film Festival?
Moza: Every July. We partner with the National Black Arts Festival. Their arts show is phenomenal. They have almost a half million people coming to do the show. We produce the film part, [that goes on for] two weekends. We have been there for eight or nine years now. We do the major films from our festival. We have 170 films but in Atlantic we screen 85 films. It’s a short weekend, half day until Midnight, but it is well received.
I hope this year…you know I’m from Zanzibar (You know, I have to plug that in). I’m thinking about going home for the Zanzibar International Film Festival. That happens during the same time as the National Black Arts. I also heard that Danny Glover will be there.
Astride: Have you met him before?
Moza: I met Danny, one-on-one, the first year [when] we did our meeting for the Pan-African Film Festival. He was our first sponsor. He brought the ticket for the first lady of Burkina Faso because we are a sister festival with FESPACO. So Danny brought them in for the first year in 1992. We started with very little films. I think we had about fifty films. It was only for four days.
Astride: Let me get this right, if I was listening correctly, have you been to FESPACO?
Moza: I have never been to FESPACO but Asantewa and Babu have been going to FESPACO. Hopefully, next year we will go to FESPACO. It will be my first time in West Africa. We have been going to South Africa. We had a lot request to do a festival in South Africa but it never materializes. It’s going to happen whenever there is that need.
Astride: Did you imagine the turnout for the awards brunch?
Moza: Nope. Nope. Nope.
Astride: How do you think the leadership will carry on? I know that there are a lot of volunteers…
Moza: We would have to clone Babu and whoever is in line has to be young and strong and have the same mind as him. The way it is carried on right now, it needs to carry on the same way.
Astride: I haven’t met someone like Babu who studied law and did sociology and pursued film distribution. I haven’t seen someone put those two together.
Moza: He was doing international trade between America and Africa. There was a brother who worked with Sekou Toure, Gilbert Minnot who said to Babu: “Look you’re in Hollywood, do film distribution because OUR STORIES NEED TO GET OUT THERE. I will give you all the insight that you need to know and I will help you put it together. And, that’s how it started.
Astride: When did this person pass away?
Moza: He passed away in, I think, 1996 or 1997. He had cancer. He is the one who put the seed in Babu and took him to FESPACO. Babu was diligently learning, and film distribution is something Babu is still learning. Being one person, he cannot do distribution but we can showcase films, which is easy for us.
Astride: The festival will also attract the filmmakers who will obviously do their part.
Moza: Exactly. Yes…In the 1960s, Babu used to travel a lot. Ja’net Dubois supported him financially to go up and down Africa. Danny Glover was Babu’s brother’s schoolmate and he came on board when we needed him. They were all very, very interested. It took from the 1960s to 1992 for Babu to launch the film festival so you know there was a lot of groundwork he had to cover.
Astride: What was that spark?
A lot people were tired of not seeing Black faces and Black history, honored history, stories on television. We have comedy shows all the time but there is no serious program that makes us look good. This program on the other hand helps to raise us because we are not all buffoons. We have serious issues that we need to deal with. What Babu has developed has helped a lot of people to understand who they are and where they came from. People can now say, “My God, even if I’m not a king or queen, I am somebody.” [The festival] takes them to a higher level of consciousness. After that, everyone started doing film festivals.
Astride: I’m sure that you see these festivals as positive phenomenon.
Moza: I love it. I tell people, “whatever you can do to uplift, do the upliftment.”
Now, we have to cater to the finest. We get about 800 to 1000 entries every year and we have to sit through to select 150 to 170. Those people who don’t get picked are not [upset] but they know that they have to come back to the table with a better product.
Astride: Do you—
Moza: Nope, I don’t see any movies. We have jurors that see the movies. I don’t see any movies even during the festival I don’t see the movies. If I go see a movie, because I work so hard behind the scenes, I would fall asleep.
Astride: Do you go to the spoken word event?
Moza: I don’t attend anything because I am all over but nowhere. I’ve been pulled left, right, and center. Right now, as I’m telling you this, The Africa Channel is waiting for a report from me.
Astride: Okay. I mean you spoke enough. If you have to go, then you have to go.
III.
Ayuko Babu
It’s economic and cultural repression,” Ayuko Babu exhorts, commenting on the pop music being played outside The Magic Johnson Theater, located at Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles.
Babu, executive director of PAFF, explains how several years ago, when Magic Johnson still owned the theater, the organizers of the festival were able to play music that reflected the African Diaspora theme of the festival. The liberty to play such music ended when AMC Theaters brought out Magic Johnson. According to policy, AMC only plays music that can also be sold by the company.
Babu’s critical remarks on the status of the arts in a society driven by capitalism are far from mere antagonism because his comments do not result in resignation. The film festival is a fecund space that fosters hope and reformist capabilities among filmgoers, filmmakers and volunteers, and caters to independent and innovative films and filmmakers.
In past interviews, Babu has explained how this festival specifically counters the perception that the absence of Blacks at festivals such as Sundance reflects their disinterest in films made outside of Hollywood. His efforts are aimed to dispel the myth that there is no viable black audience viewing independent films.
His tenacity becomes most evident as I accompany him to the bank where he has to complete an errand. He looks around the bank while he completes the transaction and, spotting a void, decides to rectify this issue. Without explaining anything to the journalist trailing him, he exits the bank and returns to the his office, where he goes to a back room and lifts a box of festival programs over his soldiers. He heads back to the car and returns to the same nearby bank in order to pass out festival programs. He explains to the bank tellers about the festival and highlights the special events.
Thereafter, he continues on with this mission by driving to a popular restaurant that caters to the area’s Black middle-class population. He drops off more festival programs. For those who recognize him, he elaborates on the festival and points out the remaining events that they can attend. Our conversation was briefly paused and I observed his efforts to disseminate information. His promotion efforts, along with those arduously performed by other staff members and volunteers, result in several sold-out screenings during the festival. In some fortunate cases, these sold-out screenings have an encore presentation.
Despite the popularity of the festival, this cultural gathering has been represented through misconstrued images, images that are carelessly, although strategically, reproduced by local news organizations. These local media describe the festival as parochial or pedantic. I was given these local reports as we resumed our conversation in his office. Regardless of the disengaged reviews, the festival has expanded and continues to receive sponsorship over the years from various corporations and international governmental officials. It has become the largest Black film festival in the United States that specializes in international films. The attendance at the festival reaches up to several hundred thousand people. Moreover, this year marks the first time the festival has been televised on The Africa Channel. Now, the festival can reach those who are unable to make the journey to Los Angeles.
During the off-season, The Pan-African Film Festival partners with other festivals and organizations across the country and internationally. Most notably, PAFF showcases their main films during the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia in July—a festival that is holding its twentieth anniversary this year. PAFF has supportive ties with the Africano Film Festival in Milan, Italy and FESPACO—the largest film festival on the African continent, occurring bi-annually. Babu, along with his other partners, has been connected to FESPACO since its inception. PAFF attracts a variety of people: actors, screenwriters, directors, and those outside of the industry who wish to be informed by being exposed of to Black culture from different parts of the world.
The festival’s expansiveness attests to the organizers’ maturation. An awards brunch was a recent addition in order to maintain is competitiveness amongst other festivals around the country. Repeatedly, Babu states how the Pan-African Film Festival must accommodate to capitalistic underpinnings. He explains: “[[The awards ceremony} evolved two years ago…[it was] partly political. We didn’t give out any awards. So we decided to start giving out awards to compete in the marketplace. So that was market-driven…capitalism. [We wanted to know] how could we make our awards different and have some value and at the same time we didn’t have money to compete, [considering] Hollywood’s gloss. We decided to go for quality. We named one of our awards after Beah Richards who is one of the great Black teachers and actresses. [In other words] we would give these awards in the name of these ancestors, which would force the recipients to find out who these people were and give them the sense that these people were watching them.”
Babu explains the concept driving the design for the PAFF awards: The walking staff is so strong. It’s a powerful piece that evolved again through a mystical [understanding]; therefore, it stands out. The PAFF logo is a Senufo craving, from the people in Ivory Coast. The statue is not looking outwards, it is looking inwards; it’s a mediation piece. A lot of actors, directors, writers, and filmmakers are extremely individualist therefore they don’t see themselves as cultural leaders. Once you put a film out there, once your write a book, once you decide to put a festival together, you’re trying to lead the people. You become a cultural leader. You’re trying to make people stop paying attention to one thing and pay attention to your idea. So these artists are competing in the marketplace of ideas. So you can’t escape.”
This matter of accountability through self-reflection, which Babu attributes to the 1960’s Black Arts Movement—can be at once haunting but also spiritually grounding. For filmmakers, selection to the festival and possibly an award adds distinction to their resume and increases the likeliness of receiving more selections to future festivals. As these special recognitions lure more filmmakers, the content of the films in the festival grows more nuanced. The first several recipients for these awards set the tone for the future filmmakers.
The addition of an awards brunch demonstrates the festival’s strivings and these strivings come two-fold. The music that sets an incongruous tone outside of the movie theatre causes uneasiness; nevertheless, what occurs has been occurring inside the theater maintains an artistic integrity. Concomitantly, although the awards brunch was a strategic addition, what occurs inside this ceremonious gathering is a salute to a progressive community institution. The festival certainly provides a forum for storytellers whose ferocity and perceptiveness have often been under-appreciated or completely ignored. The words of the late filmmaker St. Clair Bourne, upon his acceptance of the Pioneer Award in 2007, best illustrates this point. He said: “I would really like to thank the Pan-African Film Festival for providing a place where filmmakers like myself, independent, and people who have an independent mind can come to see independent work. Often—I live between here between New York and Los Angeles—I and my colleagues oftentimes feel like a blues musician looking for the next gig but more like a guerrilla fighter looking for a safe house and the Pan-African Film Festival is one of those safe houses.”
Links: Pan African Film Festival.
African Diaspora Film Festival.
The American Black Film Festival—2002
The Acapulco Black Film Festival—2001
Read and search hundreds of reviews and coverage of other festivals on SeeingBlack.com's Movies/TV channel and archive.
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