Pasadena's Black August Film Festival closed out its fifth annual run on Sunday with a morning-to-afternoon program at the Flintridge Center, screening four films and handing out awards in six categories before an audience gathered to mark a commemoration with roots stretching back to a California prison yard in 1979. The Sunday closing program opened at 10:30 a.m. at 236 West Mountain Street, Suite 106, with awards beginning at 1 p.m.
The festival is presented by the Pasadena African American Film Foundation, founded by local publisher and filmmaker Dennis Haywood, whose mission includes documenting Pasadena and Altadena history. As reported by Pasadena Now, the closing slate included the films Dena Matriarchs, Toll, Alpha Centauri, and Supershero: The Journey of Johna Rivers, with awards given for best feature film, best feature documentary, best short film, best short documentary, most historical film, and best foreign film. Haywood, who also directs the festival, told the outlet that “the festival belongs to the community” and called Black August “a call to action.”
A Commemoration Born at San Quentin
Black August did not start as a film festival. The commemoration began inside San Quentin State Prison in 1979, when incarcerated organizers codified a month of self-discipline that included fasting from sunrise to sunset, abstaining from alcohol, and engaging in physical training and political education, according to Voices from Solitary. The month commemorates the deaths of Jonathan P. Jackson, who was killed in Marin County on August 7, 1970, and his brother George Jackson, who died at San Quentin on August 21, 1971, per Pasadena Now's reporting. George Jackson's writing, including the line “Patience has its limits. Take it too far… and it's cowardice,” remains tied to the observance's legacy.
The Marin County connection is not incidental to Pasadena. Jonathan P. Jackson was a Pasadena resident who attended St. Andrew's School, La Salle High School, and Blair High School before his death at 17 during an attempt to free his incarcerated brother, according to background compiled from Wikipedia. That local upbringing is part of why organizers say the commemoration carries specific weight in the San Gabriel Valley rather than functioning as a distant historical reference point.
Zinzun's Legacy Runs Through the Foundation
The foundation's programming is also shaped by the legacy of Michael Zinzun, the Pasadena-raised activist and namesake of its journalism school. Zinzun grew up in Pasadena, attended Blair High School, ran an auto repair shop in Altadena, and co-founded the Coalition Against Police Abuse in 1974, according to Pasadena Now's earlier reporting on his life. In 1986, Zinzun lost sight in his left eye after an encounter with Pasadena police officers, a case that led to a $1.2 million legal settlement from the city, the LA Times reported at the time of his 2006 death. The Coalition Against Police Abuse later served as lead plaintiff in a 1983 lawsuit against the LAPD's Public Disorder Intelligence Division, a case that exposed illegal surveillance of local community groups and forced the division's disbandment.
The foundation has drawn directly on that history in its own filmmaking. In 2022, it released the documentary Zinzun: A Revolutionary Activist, directed by Haywood, which won Best Documentary at that year's Black August Film Festival before streaming on major digital platforms, per Pasadena Black Pages. The Michael Zinzun Film and Journalistic School, described as a twelve-week program for aspiring filmmakers and journalists, serves participants from underserved communities and carries the activist's name into the foundation's youth training work.
Eaton Fire Recovery Anchors the Program
This year's festival lineup reflected a more recent local crisis. Tugene Davis, program director of the Pasadena African American Film Foundation, is among those overseeing Zinzun students committed to producing a documentary about Altadena residents rebuilding after the Eaton Fire, though Pasadena Now reported that film has not yet arrived. Separately, filmmaker Ondi Timoner's 39-minute documentary All the Walls Came Down, which documents Altadena's fire recovery and was shortlisted for the 98th Academy Awards, was among the films slated for this year's festival; Timoner lost her own Altadena home in the blaze, according to Altadena Now's coverage of the festival.
The fire itself remains a defining backdrop for the region. The Eaton Fire ignited January 7, 2025, in Eaton Canyon near Altadena and burned 14,021 acres over 24 days, destroying 9,418 structures and causing 19 deaths across foothill communities, according to CAL FIRE data cited on Wikipedia. Altadena and Northwest Pasadena, where many festival organizers live and report, bore much of that impact, which is part of why the recovery theme carried through this year's screenings.
Growth Since a Modest 2022 Debut
The Pasadena African American Film Foundation held its first festival in 2022, and the event has grown steadily since. The previous edition screened 50 films from 22 countries and attracted more than 400 people, per Pasadena Now. Tickets for this year's closing program cost $15 for a single block, while a $45 general all-access pass covered the broader festival; both prices excluded booking fees and local sales tax, and organizers noted all sales were final with no refunds. Ticket sales closed Sunday alongside the festival itself, and the foundation listed a festival contact number of (626) 241-5714.
The Flintridge Center venue, a Pasadena nonprofit focused on breaking cycles of poverty, community violence, and incarceration through youth development and adult reentry programs, has hosted the festival's closing events, reinforcing the thematic overlap between the commemoration's origins and its current home. Pasadena Black Pages, the digital newspaper Haywood founded in 2015 to cover the African American communities of Pasadena and Altadena, has chronicled the festival's growth alongside the foundation's other projects, including its ongoing effort to expand the Zinzun journalism school's curriculum for local youth.
