Lil Mama received rave reviews for her star-making turn
as Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez in VH1's biopic "CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story," which
chronicles the rise of the best-selling, Grammy Award-winning R&B girls
group of all time. The television movie was the
highest-rated original cable movie of 2013, and nabbed two NAACP nominations,
including one for "Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic
Special. Because of Lil Mama’s authentic portrayal, she was invited to perform
with the original members, “Chilli” and “T-Boz” at the 2013 American Music
Awards. A native of Brooklyn, New
York, Lil Mama burst on the pop culture scene in 2008 with her debut album, VYP
– that is, “Voice of Young People” -- scoring two Top 10 hit records on
Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Her single "Lip Gloss," landed on Rolling Stone’s
list as one of the Best 100 Songs of 2007.
She’s been nominated for various awards, including two BET Awards for
Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, an MTV Video Music Award, and several Teen
Choice Awards. In 2007 and 2008, she nabbed the Teen Choice Award for
Choice Summer Song and Choice Rap/Hip-Hop Track for her hit singles “Lip Gloss”
and “Shawty Get Loose,” respectively. Audiences also know Lil Mama as a judge
for seven seasons on MTV's popular dance competition show "America's Best Dance
Crew."
PAFF,
America's
largest and most prestigious Black film festival, will take place
February 6-17, 2014 at
the new Rave Cinemas Baldwin Hills 15 at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. For more
information about the festival and SpokenWord Fest, visit www.PAFF.org.
Along with Lil Mama, the festival is happy to announce a
roster of veteran actors who will serve as celebrity jurors to judge the films
in competition. This year, PAFF has selected a total of 179 films, representing 46 countries -- that is, 41 feature-length
documentaries, 23 short documentaries, 56 narrative features, and 59 narrative
shorts as well as 11 webseries in the new category of New Media. The festival
will hand out prizes for Best Documentary
Feature, Best Documentary Short,
Best Narrative Short, Best Narrative Feature, and Best First Feature Film as well as
audience favorite awards in all categories at the close of the
festival.
ROSTER OF
CELEBRITY JURORS FOR THE PAN AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL
Vanessa Bell
Calloway – actress, producer
A native of Cleveland, Ohio,
Vanessa Bell Calloway is a veteran actress of stage, television, and film who’s
earned eight NAACP Image Award nominations. She’s best known for a
plethora of roles, including box-office, smash hits, “Coming to
America,” “What’s Love Got to Do With
It,” “Biker Boyz,” “Love Don’t Cost A Thing,” “The Inkwell,” “Crimson Tide,”
“The Brothers,” “Cheaper By The Dozen,” “The Temptations,” as well as the lead
female role, voiced in the animated feature “Bebe's Kids.” She can be seen in
three indies, currently out on DVD – that is, “The Last Fall,” “The Under
Shepherd” and “The Obama Effect.”
Michael
DeLorenzo -- actor, director
Michael
DeLorenzo is a veteran of the stage and screen with more than 25 years of
experience in the entertainment industry. A native of Bronx, New York, he
attended New York’s famous High School of the Performing Arts. Prior to acting,
he began his career as dancer, performing with Tina Ramirez's Ballet Hispanico,
the School of American Ballet (SAB) and the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet with a
final tenure at the New York School of Ballet. Interestingly, he was one of the
dancers in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” music video. A knee injury propelled him
into acting, with his first breakout role in Dick Wolf’s urban drama “New York
Undercover.” His television credits include “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York,” “The
Ghost Whisperer,” “Crossing Jordan”
and “Resurrection Blvd.”
Erica Gimpel
-- actress, singer, songwriter
Erica Gimpel will forever
live in the hearts and minds of audiences as Coco Hernandez on the television series,
“Fame.” A native New Yorker,
interestingly, Gimpel was a junior at New York City’s famed School of the Arts
when she was cast in the role of Coco. She became an international star with
platinum soundtracks and sold-out concerts around the world. Her other
television credits include “True
Blood,” “Criminal Minds,” “Grey’s Anatomy,’ “Nikita,” “Rissoli & Isles” and
“Veronica Mars” – just to name a few. On the big screen, she’s appeared in the
Oscar-nominated short film, “Tuesday Morning Ride,” as well as “Smoke,” “The King of New York,” and “No
Such Thing.” She recently filmed “Romeo and Juliet in Harlem,” opposite
Harry
Lennix and Aunjanue Ellis, directed by Aleta Chappell.
Jimmy Jean-Louis – model,
actor
Haitian-born actor, Jimmy
Jean-Louis grew up in the slums of Petion-Ville, Haiti until the age 12, when he
moved to Paris, and segued from a model to an international movie star. In
Africa and throughout the Caribbean, he’s one of the most recognizable actors in
the Diaspora. Taking on one of the most significant roles of his career,
Jean-Louis portrays Haitian Revolution leader in the epic film, “Toussaint L’
Ouverture.” His stirring portrayal of the military leader has garnered him many
awards on the film-festival circuit. In 2011, he received a Best Actor nod for
his role in “Sinking Sands” from the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), i.e.
the African Oscars. His film credits include
“Tears of the Sun,” “Hollywood Homicide,” “Phat Girlz,” “Diary of a Tired, Black
Man,” “Sinking Sands,” and “One
Night in Vegas.”
Dawnn Lewis – actress,
singer
A native of Brooklyn, NY, Dawnn Lewis is a multi-talented
and multi-faceted artist as a Grammy Award-winning singer, multiple ASCAP &
BMI award-winning songwriter and actress. Although she’s best known for the role
of Jelessa Vinson on the hit NBC show, “A Different World,” Lewis also composed
the show’s theme song with Bill Cosby and Stu Gardner, and sang it for the
show’s first season. Her television credits include “The Soul Man,” “CSI:
Miami,” “One Tree Hill,” “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “Nash Bridges,” “Spiderman,”
“Girlfriends,” and “Hanging With Mr. Hooper.” Lewis has a recurring role as Dr.
Knapp on the award-winning daytime series “Days of Our Lives.”
Tanjareen
Martin – actress, producer
Tanjareen
Martin, a native of Inglewood, Calif., runs Citric Cinema Inc., and produced the
award-winning web series "The Celibate Nympho Chronicles." She is a series
regular on “Zane’s the Jump Off,” airing Fridays on Cinemax and appeared in two
sitcoms executive produced by Bentley Kyle
Evans – namely, “Family Time” and “The Rev.”
On the big screen, she’s appeared in
"Johnson Family Vacation," “Miss March,” “Love for Sale,” “Hurricane in a
Rose Garden” and “Something Like a Business.”
Nicki
Micheaux – actress
The consummate character actor, Nicki Michaeux has guest
starred in some of television’s most celebrated dramatic series. Whether she’s
the tortured, drug-addicted sister of fellow police officer Keith Charles
(Mathew St. Patrick) on “Six Feet Under;” the fearless, undercover detective
Trish George on “The Shield;” or the sexy temptress on the acclaimed Showtime
series, “Soul Food,” Micheaux delivers a noteworthy performance every single
time. For four seasons, she portrayed the independent and supportive wife and
mother on the ABC Family series, “Lincoln Heights.” Next up: she’ll appear in
the feature film, “The Trials Of Cate McCall,” opposite Kate Beckinsale. Born is Detroit, an Army brat, Michaeux
has lived in many cities throughout the country, but considers Houston, Texas
home.
Dorian Missick – actor
No stranger to the stage, film or television, the New
Jersey-born and New York raised, Dorian Missick is a true artistic Renaissance
man. Missick just wrapped up a successful season five on TNT’s hit cop-drama
series “Southland” where he played Detective Ruben Robinson. Other television
credits include, “Haven,” "The Cape" and “Six Degrees.” Look for Missick in an
upcoming episode of BET’s “Being Mary Jane;” plus, he just landed the lead role
of Jay Favors in an untitled HBO comedy. On the big screen, Missick has appeared
in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Lucky Number Sleven” as well as indie darlings,
“Big Words,” “Things Never Said,” and “Mooz-lum.” This summer, Missick wrapped
on the Jerry Bruckheimer thriller “Beware The Night,” portraying Gordon, a Bronx
cop who attempts to solve strange crimes.
Issa
Rae – writer, actress, producer
Raised in Potomac Maryland and
Los Angeles, Issa Rae is an award-winning writer, director and producer. With
her own unique flare and infectious sense of humor, Rae's web content has
garnered more than 20 million views and close to 140,000 subscribers on YouTube.
In 2012, Rae made the Forbes 30 Under 30 Entertainment List and won the 2012
Shorty Award for Best Web Show for her hit series "The Misadventures of Awkward
Black Girl." In addition to “Awkward Black Girl,” Rae has created other web
series, including “Dorm Diaries” “Ratchet Piece Theatre, “The F Word.” Her hands
are pretty full, developing a new television show, called “I Hate LA Dudes,”
with Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy, “Scandal,” “Private Practice”) for ABC and
a half-hour comedy for HBO with Emmy-winning writer/producer Larry Wilmore.
Vanessa
A. Williams -- actress
Born and
raised in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, Vanessa Williams
attended New York's famed High School of Performing Arts, and earned a
bachelor's degree in theatre and business from Marymount Manhattan College. She
landed one of her first acting roles on “The Cosby Show” before heading to Los
Angeles, and setting up residence on the Fox hit show, “Melrose Place,” as the
first and only main African American character. An award-winning actress,
Williams is best known for her roles as Rhonda Blair in “Melrose Place” and the
sassy Maxine Chadway on Showtime’s “Soul
Food,” which nabbed her an NAACP Image Award. Her television
credits include “Raising Izzie,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” Lincoln Heights,”
“Cold Case,” “Murder One,” “Chicago
Hope,” “NYPD Blue,” “Living Single,” and the “Cosby Show” – just to name a few.
On the big screen, she’s appeared in “A Woman of Color,” “Mother,” “Punks” and
“New Jack City.”
AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS …
PAFF is the grant recipient of the City of Los Angeles
and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. The festival thanks the generous
support of the Baldwin Hills
Crenshaw Plaza and RAVE Cinemas as well as the Organisation Internatinale de la
Francophonie. For more information,
visit www.PAFF.org.
ABOUT THE PAN AFRICAN FILM
FESTIVAL
Gearing up
for its 22nd anniversary, the Pan African Film and Arts Festival
(PAFF), is America's largest and most prestigious Black film festival. Each
year, it screens more than 150 films made by and/or
about people of African descent from the United States, Africa, the Caribbean,
South America, the South Pacific, Latin America, Europe and Canada. PAFF holds
the distinction of being the largest Black History Month event in the
country.
PAFF
was founded in 1992 by
award-winning actor Danny Glover (“The Color Purple,” “Lethal Weapon” movie
franchise), Emmy Award-winning actress Ja’Net DuBois (best known for her role as
Willona in the tv series, “Good
Times”) and executive director, Ayuko Babu, an international legal, cultural and
political consultant who specializes in African Affairs. PAFF is a non-profit corporation
dedicated to the promotion of ethnic and racial respect and tolerance through
the exhibit of films, art and creative
expression.
The goal
of PAFF is to present and showcase
the broad spectrum of Black creative works, particularly those that reinforce
positive images, help to destroy negative stereotypes and depict an expanded
vision of the Black experience. PAFF believes film and art can lead to better
understanding and foster communication between peoples of diverse cultures,
races, and lifestyles, while at the same time, serve as a vehicle to initiate
dialogue on the important issues of our times.
For
more information, please visit www.PAFF.org or call (310)
337-4737.
