On today’s show

AYUKO BABU

Director of the Pan African Film Festival

In Conversation

with

Eric Mann

Discusses the Films

Fight for Respect: African American Soldiers in World War II

Africa, Cradle of Humankind and Modern Civilizations

Soleil O-by Med Hondo

and

The Five Demands—the 1969 Black and Puerto Rican Student Strike for Open Admissions at City College of N.Y.

Brief History of PAFF from Wikipedia

The first official festival was organized in 1992 by actors Danny Glover and Ja’net Dubois and executive director Ayuko Babu.[4] Glover and actress Whoopi Goldberg co-hosted the festival.[5] It featured over 40 films by black directors from four continents. The Los Angeles Times said the films had universal themes as well as African themes: “the overthrow of colonial governments, the clash between modern values and traditional values, and tales of gifted artists”. Films at the first festival included Sarraounia, Heritage Africa, and Lord of the Street.[6] In 2013, the film festival attracted approximately 30,000 patrons, and the arts festival attracted around 75,000.[2] In 2014, the film festival featured 179 films from 46 countries. The films included feature-length documentaries, short documentaries, narrative feature films, narrative short films, and webseries.

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