A Perfect Day @ The Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles :)
Good Afternoon all,
So, just like the San Diego Black Film Festival, I wanted to share my thoughts about this Festival.
The Pan African Film Festival was incredible. Truly. The customer service was phenomenal. As a transplant from Boston now in Chicago, I do not know how to navigate LA. Yes, I’m been here like 4 times- but still. Miki, the coordinator was very timely with calling me back with information, having my tickets reserved as well as parking information. I got there just in time with my guests. One guest showed up a bit later than everyone else and I lost the extra tickets, but customer service gave me an extra one without having to pay. SCORE!
In the block that A Perfect Day was in (5 shorts, including us) lasted about 90 minutes. And I tell ya, each minute I was on edge with each piece. Soo good! I felt a surge of hope and inspiration for Cinema again. The general theme of this section was about consciousness. A Perfect Day, in respect to thinking about the current state of black and brown youth and violence, One short was about this idea of having a “disability”, which can often serve as an amazing ability and another short about the current state of education in inner city schools (awesome use of live action and animation). All sooo very good.
There was a Q & A right after. Including myself, there were three others (Director of one short and his two actors) that came up. There was just soooo much uproar, people standing and shouting beautiful things at us. Hahaha! The Theatre Manager had to calm everyone down. Once everyone was settled, we each said our name, position held for whichever film. And down the line, the audience clapped hard and there were smiles at every corner. It was so overwhelming.
The Q&A lasted about 20 minutes with a nice variety of questions. After it ended, the audience swarmed over to us. I actually ran out of business cards! I had soooo much fun repping the Perfect Day team (cast and crew), I started to sound like a publicist! Even when I left, I was being treated like a celebrity. One woman came up to me and said that she was on the committee and was disappointed that A Perfect Day was not up for an award. That is saying something serious.
I hugged my guests for coming (two of which are close friends…*side eye* Jahcobie and Seb!). We all took photos and had a long conversation with an older gentleman who was fascinated by my thoughts about Chicago, as I was fascinated by his story of being part of opening one of the oldest black theatres in both NY and Chicago. Such wonderful people and inspiring festival. I will certainly be going again next year whether a film of mine is in it or not! Hopefully, my money will be up so I can do the panel discussions!
Again, special thank you to the Pan African staff and committee. My four guests and of course the Perfect Day cast and crew. We have three more festivals ya’ll. Let’s keep truckin 🙂
