Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles is in full swing with 11 days of films, panels and events. This year the festival will screen over 60 short films, many of which we've covered previously on this site.
We can't begin to profile all the shorts worth seeing, but here are a few highlights for your consideration. Also look out for short film reviews by Nijla and Masha as the fest continues.
For the full schedule of shorts, visit PAFF.org HERE.
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BONESHAKER by Frances Bodomo
The first we've seen from 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis following her award-winning performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Synopsis: A Ghanaian immigrant family takes a road trip to a Louisiana Pentecostal church to cure its problem child. As the family journeys to a tent revival at the end of the Louisiana delta, they discover it is not easy to perform a traditional ritual so far from home.
Screening Times:Sun, Feb 10@12:00p; Mon, Feb 11@10:10p
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A GOOD CATHOLIC GIRL by Matt Bish
Part of Focus Features' Africa First shorts program. Synopsis: Amina is attracted to a young Catholic man in her neighborhood and this does not go down well with her father. With mixed emotions, she goes out of her way to find her only true love despite her father’s pre-arranged marriage to another man.
Screening Times: Mon, Feb 11@1:10p; Wed, Feb 13@1:15p
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OUR RHINELAND by Faren Humes
This period-set short earned Faren Humes a student DGA Award. Synopsis: In 1937, under the Third Reich, Germans of mixed race were located, identified and sent to clinics where they underwent forced sterilization. This is the story of two sisters who fought back.
Screening Times: Fri, Feb 15@4:25p; Sat, Feb 16@12:30p
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BARBASOL by Ralph Scott
Ralph Scott's debut film played to much applause at Urbanworld Film Festival in the fall, and for those of you on the east coast, it returns to NY for New Voices in Black Cinema Festival following its PAFF run this month. Synopsis: A man desires to bond with his elderly father when he realizes he is running out of time due to his father’s increasing dementia. What he comes to realize is he needs to now turn his attention to his own son before it is too late.
Screening Times: Thu, Feb 14@3:45p
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THE SILENT TREATMENT by Martine Jean
This 1920s period piece stars Middle of Nowhere's Emayatzy Cornealdi. Synopsis: When Loretta walks in on her seemingly cheating husband as he dances the night away with another woman, she proceeds to give him the silent treatment. A tribute to the great Black artists of yesteryear who went before us and, with no hope of gaining fame and fortune during that era, somehow found a way to make movies simply because it was their creative passion.
Screening Times: Tue, Feb 12@6:30p
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BUSTED ON BRIGHAM LANE by Talibah Newman
Talbah Newman's award-winning short features Pariah actors Pernell Walker and Rob Morgan. Synopsis: A young teenage girl takes precariously creative measures to reconcile her relationship with her estranged father for her 18th birthday and discovers that he is not the same man she remembers.
Screening Times: Fri, Feb 15@4:25p; Sat, Feb 16@12:30p
