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Nelson Mandela on film and TV: From Sidney Poitier to Terrence Howard (photo: Sidney Poitier as Nelson Mandela in ‘Mandela and de Klerk’) (See previous post: "Nelson Mandela Movies: ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,’ ‘Invictus.’") As found on the IMDb, here are a handful of other narrative big-screen films featuring Nelson Mandela: Darrell Roodt’s Winnie Mandela (2011), with Jennifer Hudson in the title role and Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela. Pete Travis’ Endgame (2009), with Clarke Peters’ Mandela as less a martyred saint than a skillful realpolitik negotiator. This political drama also features Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong, and Derek Jacobi. Zola Maseko’s 1950s-set Drum (2004), in which Mandela is played — for a change — by a South African actor, Lindani Nkosi. As reported by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, British filmmaker Peter Kosminsky (White Oleander, Wuthering Heights) "got into hot water a couple of years ago...

121 films later… another installment of the Pan African Film Festival (Paff) in Los Angeles, CA, came to a close on Wednesday, the 23rd, with the announcement of its filmmaker awards.

Prizes were handed out for the following categories: Best Narrative Feature, Best First Feature Film, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, and Audience Favorite awards.

I was extremely pleased to see João Daniel Tikhomiroff’s Besouro win the Best Narrative Feature prize. It’s a film we’ve touted on this blog for the last 2 years, since initially hearing about it. The film is still without North American distribution, as far as I know, and it needs all the press and push it can get. I hope it’s eventually picked up – even if it’s a straight-to-dvd release.

Ava DuVernay’s I Will Follow received the well-deserved Best First Feature Film award.

And the Jamie Foxx-executive produced Thunder Soul,...

Short notice, but I only just heard about it last night, at the screening of Bilal’s Stand that I attended (review is coming)…

This is an all-day event taking place at Nyu’s Cantor Film Center on 36 East 8th Street; I’ll be heading out there shortly – don’t want to miss Armond White dish on “black representation in cinema” on a panel that begins at 10Am.

Here are the specifics for each segment of the conference. It’s all Free and Open To The Public! So, if you can attend even one of them, why not do so. I’ll check out at least one of them… possibly more, I’m engaged by what I hear after the first one.

First, from 10-11:15 am – a panel on Representation

Moderator: Jacquie Jones

Panelists: Todd Boyd, Armond White, Toni Francis, Zola Maseko

Second, from 11:30-12:45 pm – a...