Festival Is Forum

People treat it like a family member visiting from out of town.

They leave work early to attend. They plan weekends around the events. They invite friends and family, as though sharing a rare gift.

Each year around this time the Pan African Film Festival & Fine Arts Show arrives in Los Angeles, bringing images and stories of people of African descent from across the globe.

The festival, which runs through Monday at the Magic Johnson Theatres, has become a global meeting place, where black people from different countries--artists, intellectuals, students, families and filmmakers--gather to hear each other’s stories.

“This, more than any other event provides that dialogue,” said poet Wendy James. “This is always so powerful because it appeals to a cross-section of black people. We need that exposure.”

With 68 films from as far as Australia, discussions with filmmakers, an art show in Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Mall, workshops, children’s festivals and other events, the event is meant to do more than present cinematic images, said Ayuko Babu, its executive director.

“If you want to understand yourself, you cannot understand yourself just as an African American,” Babu said. “If you don’t understand the totality of the African experience, you don’t understand. Our festival attempts to give you a glimpse into all the aspects of black folks’ lives and voices.”

Founded in 1992, the festival is Babu’s effort to provide a forum for those voices. Its appeal continues to grow. This year about 150 volunteers have kept it running.

What attracts the volunteers, like those who attend, is the sense that “you are in the midst of something new that is happening,” Babu said.

For Kimberly Estis, who has volunteered for five years, the festival is a way to learn about Africa.

“It’s like getting a chance to go to Africa for a fraction of the cost,” she said, sitting at an information table in front of the ticket booths.

For some, it is a step on the road toward self-discovery.

“I’m discovering my Cuban roots,” said Jocelyn Scott, who was raised in New York. “This is the first year.”

Whatever the reason, the festival has become a magnet. On opening night, throngs attend wearing traditional African clothes.

“I scheduled my time off so I could come,” said Sequoia Mercier. “It would be like a sacrilege not to. It’s right in our community.”

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After viewing Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando’s “Eyes of the Rainbow,” a documentary on the life of former Black Panther Assata Shakur, who lives in exile in Cuba, Mercier and James participated in a discussion with the filmmaker.

“For years I’ve been just thirsting to see our sister Assata,” Mercier told Rolando. “You brought a very precious gift. You brought us our sister.”

Like other directors, Rolando answered questions about the film, but also about life in her country--from the persistence of African spirituality to music.

“In general, the black Cubans, what do they think of African Americans?” one woman asked.

“I grew up with all the images of the civil rights movement in my mind,” Rolando said. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are known and some of the music is very popular, but beyond that “we don’t know very much about each other,” she said.

“It’s very important to establish a bridge of knowledge between us,” said Rolando, a native of Havana.

After a screening of his film “Tableau Ferrialle,” Senegalese director Moussa Sene Absa discussed the lives of women in his country, the challenges of making a film in Africa and the reasons he can never do a “Hollywood film” with sex and violence. Everything in Africa, he said, is serious.

And there was a screening of “Sister I’m Sorry,” a docudrama in which black men seek reconciliation with black women.

Filmmaker Cinque Northern, 28, sees the festival as an opportunity to meet and learn from others.

“It’s kind of reassuring,” said Northern, whose film “The Apartment” will be screened Sunday. “You see other people doing what you’re doing. It’s a good venue and an opportunity to interact with other filmmakers.”

And with a wide range of people, James said.

The images on screen are only part of the appeal, James said. The crowd that comes to watch is diverse, speaking different languages and bringing distinct experiences and world views.

As much as the festival brings the world closer, it is also an example of a community fulfilling its own needs, Mercier said.

Lessons can be learned from the dogged efforts of Babu and others involved in establishing the festival.

“I remember when this was just a dream,” said Mercier, who has attended the festival since it started.

“They’ve kept the vision, and it has materialized. It’s just an example of what we can do when we’re persistent.”

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The benefits to those who attend, especially young people, will be long-lasting, Babu said. The opportunity to see other images of black people, speaking other languages, being a part of a worldwide heritage, “is worth taking time out to experience . . . completely.”

A festival, he said, should not be a passive experience.

“A festival is a sacred moment in time where you stop your ordinary life and partake--a moment that rejuvenates you,” Babu said. “After it’s passed, you can go back in the world, stronger, wiser, with more humor.”