From February 7-18, 2008, the 16th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) returned to Los Angeles. Each year the PAFF presents over 175 films from the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the South Pacific and Canada, all showcasing the diversity and complexity of people of African descent. The DGA has served as a sponsor of the festival for more than a decade.

As part of our sponsorship, on Thursday, February 10, 2008 the Guild presented “A Conversation with Charles Burnett.” Burnett is the director of the indie classics Killer of Sheep, To Sleep with Anger, and the upcoming Red Soil. Burnett’s features My Brother’s Wedding and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation, and his short film When it Rains were screened at the festival. Director Eriq La Salle (Without a Trace, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) moderated the conversation.