The 27th Pan African Film Festival rolls out the red carpet for opening night

Directors, actors, film buffs and producers were some of the several attendees at the Directors Guild Theater on Thursday as America’s largest film festival premiered in Los Angeles.

“Amazing Grace,” a 1972 concert documentary featuring Aretha Franklin served as the festival’s opening night film on Feb. 7. “Little Woods,” a modern-day Western starring Tessa Thompson, is the centerpiece film on Feb. 13, but the closing night film on Feb. 17 has yet to be announced.

Other feature films include award-winning writer/director Julius Amedume’s psychological thriller “Rattlesnakes,” which stars Jimmy Jean-Louis, Amma Asante‘s “Where Hands Touch,” a romance film starring Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate You Give”) and New York-based director Danae Grandison’s short film, “Unspoken,” about the #MeToo movement in Jamaica.

Celebrating some of the world’s best independent films and documentaries, this year’s Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) will take place February 7-18, at the Cinemark Baldwin Hills Crenshaw 15 Theater at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and will screen 193 films.

For more information, visit the festival’s website at www.paff.org

By Samantha Ofole-Prince/Photos by Royalty Images