Ayuko Babu

Mr. Babu is an international legal, cultural and political consultant specializing in African affairs. In addition to the Pan African Film Festival, Mr. Babu currently serves as a Director on the Board of the Palais de la Culture in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Notably, he has worked as a consultant to Bishop H.H. Brookins, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mr. Dick Griffey, President of the African Development Public Investment Corporation and SOLAR Records. In 1977, Babu was a consultant to Stevie Wonder during Mr. Wonder’s participation at FESTAC (the 2nd Festival of Pan African Arts and Culture) held in Lagos, Nigeria. At FESTAC among other activities, Babu coordinated the satellite transmission of Mr. Wonder’s GRAMMY appearance from Lagos.

Always interested in politics and culture, Mr. Babu was a delegate to the 6th Pan African Congress in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 1974. In 1984, he brought Les Ballets Africains de la Republique de Guinee to the Olympics in Los Angeles. He was Co-Chair of the Program Committee for The Nelson Mandela Reception Committee at the Los Angeles Coliseum, in 1990.

An expert in African cinema, Mr. Babu has been invited to sit on the jury of several film festivals. In 1991 he was a jury member for the Best Short Subject at the 5th International Market for African Film and Television during FESPACO, (the world’s largest Pan African Film Festival held bi-annually in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa) In 1994, he was a member of the jury at the Cinema Africano Festival in Milan, Italy. Mr. Babu has sat on numerous panels and forums discussing the production, distribution and marketing of African American and African films. He has sat on the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Peer Grant Review Panel and the Los Angeles Arts Commission Grant Review Panel. He has been a member of the Los Angeles Arts Loan Fund review panel. In 2002, Mr. Babu was named one of the “Living History Makers” by the business and economic, Turning Point Magazine. He was a presenter at the UNESCO Conference on Images of the South and was a guest of Fund South at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival in Paris, France. In 2005, Mr. Babu was a presenter at the Nigerian film industry summit convened to introduce “Nollywood” to the American film industry.

He is currently working on several projects focusing on structuring and developing business, investment and cultural links between African Americans and Continental-born Africans. He is particularly aware of the need for institutional relationships. Under his leadership, the Pan African Film and Arts Festival has established institutional ties with the Pan African Festival of Cinema and Television (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso. And has established ties with Africano Film Festival in Milan, Italy. Additionally, he is developing formal ties with the Film & Video Foundation of South Africa, the South African Government’s entity to develop and promote the South African film industry.

Mr. Babu holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Los Angeles and attended the UCLA School of Law.