Tag Archives: PAFF

Africa & I, Ayinla win at PAFF

Africa & I

African films Africa & I and Ayinla have emerged winners at the recent Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles.

South African documentary Africa & I (1×90’), directed by Othmane Zolati and Chris Green (Chasing the Sun), follows 20-year-old adventurer Zolati who spent four years walking, cycling and skateboarding his way south through Africa, from Morocco to Cape Town.

The film is produced by Cape Town prodco Both Worlds Pictures (Puppet Nation ZA, Recipes for Love & Murder), in partnership with MultiChoice-owned African streamer Showmax and the National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa. Worldwide sales of Africa & I are handled by Big Media (US) and Paradoxal (France).

Ayinla, directed by Nigerian filmmaker Tunde Kelani, tells the story of Nigerian musician Ayinla Omowura, who used Apala music to address issues in contemporary society, commending and criticising various governmental and individual acts.

Sponsored by the First Bank of Nigeria and distributed by FilmOne (Nigeria), Ayinla will debut soon on Netflix.

At PAFF, the 30th edition of which concluded on May 2, Africa & I won in the Best First Feature Documentary category, while Ayinla took home the Programmers’ Award: Narrative Feature.

On Instagram, Kelani said: “Congratulations to our talents, crew, executive producers, producers, and our rep team in Los Angeles and Pakistan. Thanks and God’s blessings.”

PAFF is a non-profit corporation in Los Angeles that states its goal is to promote cultural understanding among peoples of African descent through exhibiting art and film.

The full list of PAFF 2022 award winner can be found here.

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PAFF postpones 30th edition to April

The Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF), which showcases work that highlights the diverse stories of black America, Africa and the global black diaspora, has postponed its 30th edition until April this year.

Ayuko Babu

The festival started out in 1992 in West Africa and has since moved to LA, usually taking place in February. But this year’s event will now take place virtually from April 19 to May 1, according to the organisers.

“PAFF will be celebrating 30 years of presenting international and domestic films that open up the world to the black experience in a way that no other festival has ever done. 2022 promises to be bigger and better than ever,” said the PAFF team on Instagram.

“As a precaution for the recent rise in Covid cases, we have decided to postpone the festival. The new tentative dates for PAFF 2022 are April 19-May 1. PAFF will continue its tradition of being the largest Black History Month event in the nation, with a virtual online experience, featuring specially curated video and live-streamed content, sharing stories about the black experience and culture from all over the world. We’re very excited for this year.”

PAFF co-founder and actor Danny Glover said: “It’s been over 30 years since we first traveled to Fespaco in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and were inspired to replicate their celebration and promotion of black films and black filmmakers here in America. We want to celebrate 30 years of connecting the PAFF audience with the broader African diaspora through film and art, and have made the decision to postpone the festival until it’s safe to do that in person.”

The decision to postpone this year’s festival was not an easy one, added PAFF executive director Ayuko Babu: “We were looking forward to celebrating our 30th anniversary in person with our community in February as we always have. Our primary concern is always the responsibility we feel towards our staff, artists, audience, and filmmakers who travel to Los Angeles from around the world, and for whom without them, there is no PAFF. We remain committed to the city of Los Angeles, where we’ve hosted PAFF for 30 years and will do so again when it is safe.”

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