Fade
to Black
Pan African Film Festival
founder thrives on positive images
Ayuko Babu grew up under the influence of the
Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and was just
12-years-old at the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott�when Rosa
Parks defied racism by refusing to submit her seat on a bus to a
white male. He recalls a childhood unlike children today, one
filled with images of sit-ins and marches for basic human and
civil rights.
 "People
say that organizing the Pan African Film Festival must be
difficult. It is, and isn�t, because it�s nothing compared to
the sit-ins and demonstrations in the 1960s, because we�re not
risking our lives going down the highway in Florida and Georgia
every day. So we have a different energy coming out that era. You�ve
got to know history. You�ve got to balance that and you�ve got
to be prepared to seize history at the moment and go with the
flow," Mr. Babu said.
Displeased with America�s false imagery and
depiction of Black people, he wanted to bring uplifting images of
Blacks worldwide to big and small screens. In 1992, he founded the
Pan African Film & Arts Festival and began an international
network of cultural artists who gather every February to showcase
positive films and artwork. The festival has grown to be a major
event attracting major stars like Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J,
Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and many others. Final Call writer
Charlene Muhammad sat down with Mr. Babu on Feb. 8, the opening
night of the festival, to hear some of his thoughts.
Final Call News (FCN): What is the purpose of
the Pan African Film Festival, and how did its name develop?
Ayuko Babu (AB): I�m a Pan Africanist and
we thought it was important to show films from all over the world.
That name encompasses Pan Africanism, the whole Black world and
what we are trying to do.
FCN: Did you get any opposition at the time of
its inception in 1992?
AB: Not opposition per se. We got lack of
money, but nobody really opposed it because nobody understood what
was going on.
FCN: What do you think the festival�s
greatest impact has been on the cultures, both Black and white?
AB: For Black folks, I think bringing these
voices from around the world is exposing the Black people in the
United States to things that we don�t have an opportunity to
see, and I think that�s very important to see. Any time you see
any new vision, hear new voices, you have an opportunity to grow.
That�s important. And if we�re growing and acting and
creating, I think we play a role in terms of stimulating that
process. A good example of that is our festival. We have a film
called "Hang Time" by Ngozi Onwurah, who�s a Nigerian
filmmaker who came to our festival with a film called
"Welcome to the Terror Dome" about five-years-ago. At
our festival, she got a chance to watch a film called "Did
You Hear The Wind Howl" about Robert Johnson, a great blues
musician. When she watched the film she got the idea about making
"Hang Time," which is about a young African athlete who
is struggling to become a professional athlete with a basketball
team in the United States. Nobody would make that connection
between Robert Johnson and a young basketball player in Africa,
but we gave her a platform and she put that together.
FCN: What is the future of the Festival, and
will it be showcased only in L.A.?
AB: We�re in Atlanta and Denver, but our
main thrust will be trying to get more of these films on
television. We have a relationship with BET to start bringing the
Pan African Film Festival on television and try to get them into
videos. That�s how most of these films are going to be seen, and
we have a sponsor with Blockbuster to try to get the films into
Blockbuster, and on cable.
FCN: What does it take for Blacks to maintain
their own images on the screen, and what is the effect of that?
AB: It is absolutely essential. All you
have to do is go down to Magic Johnson Theaters and see that
millions of Black people go in there every year to see white
images. Ninety percent of theater is white images, so we are
bombarded by white images 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, our
whole life. From San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, there�s
15 million people in the Southern California Basin.
If you go to Lagos, Nigeria, it is as big as
Southern California, and there�s 15 million Black people in that
area, so that changes your whole perception. If you can imagine
this whole area 99 percent Black, that there was no Black
community, but your whole region was Black, then your whole
perception of yourself, who you are, changes. I found out that we
(Black men) are not endangered species. When I went to Africa, I
found out that that wasn�t true. We�re so bombarded by images
and confusion here that we start thinking that the white man is in
charge of everything but we�re not.
FCN: When and how did the Children�s Festival
develop?
AB: Since 1992, we always thought from the
very beginning that it was important to expose films to young kids
so that they grow up hearing African languages. They grow up
seeing Caribbean and South Pacific images so their consciousness
from an early age is expansive, so we don�t have to fight with
them not wanting to deal with a subtitle. The reason I know that
works is because I first saw a subtitled film when I was
15-years-old. We tried very early to make sure that we had a
component for young people.
FCN: Thank you.
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