
LAFF The Innocents a Review
Heroes don’t always wear capes, sometimes she wears a military uniform and works for the red cross. The Innocents is a film based on actual events of Polish nuns at a convent in Post WWII and a young French doctor who risks her everything to save them in their time of crisis. The film opens up in Poland, December 1945. Mathilde, brilliantly played by Lou...
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And The Winners Are…
The Pan African Film Festival Awards Brunch took place in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, February 16th. Filmmakers, cast and crew members and film lovers attended this marvelous event to pay tribute to the award winners that made the 2016 Pan African Film Festival unforgettable. Best Narrative Short Born With It Programmers Award: Short Narrative Reset Programmers Award: Documentary BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez...
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Chapter And Verse Review
You ever go the movies, see a film and then take it home with you? Have it take up residence in your heart? Simmer in your mind? Trouble yet enliven sentiments you haven’t been in touch with for quite some time? I saw Chapter and Verse at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles a few days ago and I haven’t been able to...
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Miles Ahead Red Carpet At the Pan African Film Festival
The stars blazed at the screening of Miles Ahead at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, California! Miles Ahead is the biopic about the legendary Miles Davis. Don Cheadle wrote and directed this epic film and resurrects the spirit of Davis frame by frame. Mind blowing music, vibrant artwork, amazing lead actress, violence, love, retribution and a conundrum of...
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Agents of Change Review
Agents of Change is as timely as it is compelling. In the age of the Black Lives Matter movement and college students of color demanding change on campuses all over the United States, the documentary film, Agents of Change, provides indispensable historical context for our present day youth uprisings. This film is directed and produced by Frank Dawson and Abby Ginzberg who were also...
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Trafficked Film Review
Trafficked (2015) Teaser Trailer from Sean Hodgkinson on Vimeo. Trinidad and Tobago has hit the big screen in the United States with intensity and zest! The film Trafficked made it U.S. debut at the 2016 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. After debuting to sold out audiences in the Caribbean, the film’s director, Sean Hodgkinson, along with the...
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PAFF Can You Dig This Review
“I Live in South Central Los Angeles. Home of the drive thru and the drive-by,” says Ron Finley in his Ted Talk. This statement defines the conditions which propelled Finley, the Guerilla Gardener, and center of the film Can You Dig This, directed by Delilah Vallot and executive produced by John Legend. Can You Dig This is a solution driven documentary which focuses on...
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PAFF ArtFEST
Over 100 artists and craftspeople adorned the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall with African art and fashion during the Pan African Film and Arts Festival. I was thrilled about the wide variety of clothing created from beautiful African fabrics, artistic flair in the jewelry selections, unique talent of the visual artists and the feeling of being in an actual African market place. Tens of thousands of...
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Eric Jerome Dickey’s One Night a review by Yougahnese Williams
I probably wasn’t in love with the cover art. The title One Night didn’t grab me, perhaps. I’m not sure why I let this Eric Jerome Dickey book sit on the shelf for quite some time before actually reading it. When I finally did pick it up, I was underwhelmed with the story in the first few chapters. I wasn’t sure what to make...
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Dead Prez 2016 and Beyond!
I attended a Dead Prez show at the Echoplex last week in Los Angeles, California and I was so moved to see that Dead Prez still carries the banner of nonstop Hip Hop consciousness as they continue to progress in ways that marvel me. When Stic Man announced to the crowd that Dead Prez has started their own label RBG Fit Records and that...
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Mustang Film Review
I could not have imagined a better shero! Lale, played by Günes Sensoy, the youngest of five sisters in Mustang, leads the pack in defying the new restraints set on the five girls by their grandmother and uncle who is determined to rule with an iron fist. After a harmless co-ed game at the beach with a few male classmates, the threat of a scandal...
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Interview with Film Maker and Activist Leslee Udwin
Black Syrup Media met with Leslee Udwin at the San Diego Film Festival for an amazing interview on her documentary India’s Daughter. Udwin gives an overview about the film, the problems she’s faced since the film’s release, India’s ban on the film and what we must all do to promote change in our world.
