Landed in Los Angeles, Thursday, February 7, 2013 for the AAFCA Awards where my friend Deborah Riley Draper will be receiving the award for best documentary. LA is practically in shutdown mode while the LAPD is staging a manhunt for a cop killer who happens to be a former cop himself. No one does cop drama like LA. The only thing to rival the LAPD is the cities hosting of the most revered red carpet events in the world.
Staying at the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard across from TCL Chinese Theatre which used to be Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Dolby Theatre which used to be the Kodak Theatre (Do you see a trend here?) where the Academy Awards are held. It turns out the evening is a combined Pan African Film Festival tribute and the African American Film Critics Association Awards at the Taglyan Center in Hollywood. My party arrived for the reception and red carpet at 6:00 p.m. and there was quite a few stars who turned out for the event. Danny Glover, Richard Rountree, Lynn Whitfield, Janet Dubois, Sallie Richardson, Jordin Sparks, Holly Robinson Peete, Omari Hardwick, Kem, David Oyelowo, Reginald Hudlin, Nate Parker (Best Actor Nominee for Arbitrage), Jesse Williams (Greys Anatomy), Emayatzy Cornealdi (Best actress nominee for Middle of Nowhere), Nicole Beharie and director Deborah Riley Draper (Best documentary).
AAFCA Award Winners:
Best Actor Denzel Washington, “Flight” (Paramount)
Best Actress Emayatzy Corinealdi, “Middle of Nowhere” (AFFRM)
Best Supporting Actress Sally Field, “Lincoln” (Touchstone)
Best Supporting Actor Nate Parker, “Arbitrage” (Roadside Attractions)
Best Foreign Film Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, “The Intouchables” (Weinstein Company)
Breakout Performance Quvenzhané Wallis for “Beast of the Southern Wild”
(Fox Searchlight)
Best Director Ben Affleck, “Argo” (Warner)
Best Screenplay Ava DuVernay, “Middle of Nowhere”(AFFRM)
Best Music Kathryn Bostic & Morgan Rhodes, “Middle of Nowhere” (AFFRM)
Best Independent Film “Middle of Nowhere” (AFFRM)
Best Animation “Rise of the Guardians,” (Paramount)
Best Documentary tie “The House I Live In” (Charlotte Street Films) &
“Versailles ’73” (Coffee Bluff Pictures)
This is also Grammy weekend in LA so there is a lot going on. Stars are all over the place and parties are popping up everywhere. My hotel is a hot spot so I barely slept Friday and Saturday night because of the parties going on in the hotel including the room next to mine. Of course that was a no no, so I called the front desk who promptly sent security to quite things down. Turns out it was just a bunch of drunk teenage girls whose parents apparently let them loose for the weekend. Only in LA.
Deborah Riley Draper's acceptance speech at the AAFCA Awards for her Best Documentary Award was the best of the night. She gave a shout out to our Table 18 which gave us a chance to make some noise. Versailles 73: American Runway Revolution comes out on VOD and DVD February 12, 2013. Make sure you get your copy because you need this in your black history collection. This documentary follows the events leading up to what was coined as the "Battle of Versailles" a landmark fashion show on November 28, 1973, that pitted a fashion showdown between American ready-to-wear designers, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows and Halston, against five French haute couture designers, Yves St. Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Christian Dior and Emanuel Ungaro. It was also the first time African American models appeared on high fashion European runways. The documentary recounts that event that began as a fundraiser to restore the roof of the Palace of Versailles that ended up being a complete blowout by the American designers led by the unbelievable sashaying of 12 African American models. The runways of the world would never be the same again.
Director of Versailles 73: American Runway Revolution, Deborah Riley Draper
Janet Dubois, founder of Pan African Film Festival
Actress/Singer Janet Dubois and daughter
Actress Salli Richardson
Evelyn Bakon Wheeler
Actor Nate Parker
Actress Emayatzy Cornealdi star of Middle of Nowhere
Actor Jesse Williams star of Greys Anatomy
Director Deborah Riley Draper
Actor David Oyelowo
Actresses Salli Ricardson and Lynn Whitfield
Singer Jordin Sparks
Actress Nicole Beharie
Hostess Salli Ricardson; Honorees Nicole Baharie, Omari Hardwick and Lynn Whitfield; Founders of Pan African Film Festival Danny Glover and Janet Dubois
See you on the next red carpet 66th Cannes Film Festival 16-26 May 2013.
Au revoir.
