When my friend Prudence Kolong, one of the organizers of the very first Pavillon Afriques at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, asked me to participate as a host and emcee, I immediately said “yes.” Then, I immediately went into fear mode. What did I really know about film? What did I really know about Africa, or African film? What did I know about Cannes? What if I messed up someone’s name? What if I sounded inarticulate? What if my mind wandered in the middle of an interview and was like, “huh?”
Over the past couple of years, I’d hosted events such as the Central European Startup Awards in Warsaw, the CanJam jam session at the Hard Rock Cafe in Stockholm, and, well, my own upcoming travel docu-series filmed in many cities over a two year period. With all of this practice, all of these experiences under my belt, I was still nervous and insecure. Could I really do this?
The Pavillon Afriques was the first time multiple countries and cultures from Africa and the Diaspora were represented under one roof at the Cannes Film Market. Filmmakers, distributors, production companies, governmental agencies, film festival organizers, and actors all came together to connect, fellowship, and undertake the business of storytelling. Over ten days, the pavilion would feature non-stop panel discussions, screenings, parties, and deal-making. Representatives from festival regulars like South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, and Kenya, would be joined by small-but-scrappy Djibouti, Zimbabwe, Togo, and Burkina Faso, and delegates from Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, France, Canada, the UK, and the US. The Pavillon Afriques would be a space of connection and community, and I had been tasked with conveying the message to the participants at Cannes and their constituents worldwide.
Well, as we say in my neck of the woods, “Ain’t nothing to it but to do it.” No matter how jetlagged, sleep-deprived, dehydrated, or hungry, it was time to smile and engage, to ask and listen, to think and respond. It was time to connect with my fellow storytellers in front of and behind the camera. It was time to commune with my brothers and sisters, of all colors, and extol the virtues of visibility and empowerment.
And while moderating panels about which I knew very little, keeping participants engaged, doing on-the-spot interviews, and fielding demands and complaints required much energy and dexterity, doing those things also revealed just how prepared I actually was to handle those tasks. In fact, every experience up to that moment had prepared me for that very moment: from being forced by my mama to greet church elders when I was a kid to presenting at school awards ceremonies to DJing on the campus radio station at Florida A&M University to speaking on stage about reasonable recklessness to students at a heroism conference.
Know that your experiences are always leading to something bigger. Know that you can and will find yourself in rooms of import, of impact. Know that you belong there and that you’ve been provided with the skills and the practice to hold the space. Know that you got this.
Here’s to the friendships that have been made and deepened at the Pavillon Afriques and the Cannes Film Festival. Here’s to the possibilities that have been created. Here’s to the futures that have been cultivated. Merci, Cannes!
Here I am at the Cannes Film Festival, speaking with Mrs. Chaz Ebert about my experience as emcee of the Pavillon Afriques!
Have you ever been to the Cannes Film Festival? How was your experience?