((PKG)) PAN AFRICAN FILM AND ARTS FESTIVAL
((Banner: Pan African Art))
((Reporter/Camera: Elizabeth Lee))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Henry Baba Osageyfo Colby, Jewelry Artist))
We’re featuring New Guinea boar. We’re featuring amber from North Africa, Tunisia, Moracco and Mali. I never think of us as African American. I think of us as Africans in America.
((NATS))
((Ayuko Babu, Executive Director, Pan African Film and Arts Festival))
As a result of the slave trade and colonization, African people are spread all over the planet. So, we get a chance through this festival, get a chance to know each other.
((NATS))
((Ayuko Babu, Executive Director, Pan African Film and Arts Festival))
So, film, sculpture, fine art, jewelry, is all a reflection of the energy that we produce and it stimulates one or the other.
There’s very little public space that explains the Pan African experience. We think it’s important. L.A. is a cosmopolitan international city and in order to have a cosmopolitan international city, you have to have a cosmopolitan international film, especially this is the center of the film business. So, we feel it’s important to have these films here, the art show in the mall once a year to showcase and stimulate folks to come by and experience it.
((Courtesy: Next Page Productions))
((Movie NATS: Ma, I don’t want to marry now.))
((End Courtesy))
((Stephanie Linus, Nigerian Actress / Filmmaker))
So, I use the tool of filmmaking to bring attention to them, to get people to know about their problems, to get people to know the consequences that happen when you make those kinds of decisions and, you know, force them to have conversation about this.
((Courtesy: Next Page Productions))
((Movie NATS: You are too young to understand. You are young and this is the right time.))
((Stephanie Linus, Nigerian Actress / Filmmaker))
I’m happy that people have taken proactive action because we screened the movie in Gambia and a month later, the government banned child marriage in Gambia.
((Movie NAT POP))
((Courtesy: Next Page Productions))
((Ayuko Babu, Executive Director, Pan African Film and Arts Festival))
So, we know there’s profound things happening around the black world and so this is a way to amplify that make people pay attention. So, there’s an important component to educate people so that they will be able to make better choices and
((Courtesy: Next Page Productions))
influence the elected officials to make the decisions that we feel are important.
((Movie NAT POP: I want to be a girl again.))
((End Courtesy))
