Pan African Film Festival Does It Again

Continuing their annual tradition, the Pan-African Film Festival which has just wrapped up has consistently been dedicated to the advancement of cultural diversity and education through film and art and craft exhibitions. The several-week program of hundreds of events and film showings just ends Feb. 20.

Each day, from early afternoon to the late evening, in multiple screening rooms, innovative documentaries, short films, and full-length motion pictures are open to the public

It is hard to imagine the scope of creative documentaries that are presented in multiple languages, however, all with English subtitles. Some of the categories include Mouthpieces of Memory, Fragments of Diaspora (short selections), and scores of other full-length films and features. Many of the films and documentaries are personal stories of hardship and accomplishment. Several are political, although they may not appear outrightly so. Many are cultural and deal with humanities’ varied existence around the world

This reporter had the opportunity to view two excellent films: The Exile of the Sea and Stolen Fish. In Spanish with English subtitles, Exile of the Sea is the story of a young woman who was forced to move from her home in Columbia due to gangs, rape and forced prostitution to Argentina.  Everything she knows loves and everyone in her life has been left behind and now she spends her days and nights working as a bicycle delivery person for starvation wages having to send as much money as possible home. This is a story of courage and determination and pride.

The other film, Stolen Fishcould be about any significant imperialist power or ruthless money-grubbing corporation that exploits natural resources and cheap labor to send back to the mother country. This film takes place in Gambia where, although hunger exists, the reduction of fish caught is evident. People are forced to sell their fish to a giant industrial Chinese company to be exported to Europe and China to feed animals. In the process, Gambians are deprived of their primary source of protein and go hungry.

All films were screened at the Cinemark theater, at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 3650 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Details: www.paff.org