Image: The At The Pan-African Connection documentary celebrates the legacy of a longtime pillar in Dallas' Black community.
The At The Pan-African Connection documentary celebrates the legacy of a longtime pillar in Dallas' Black community.
For filmmaker Anthony Asota, a routine visit to Dallas in 2021 became a reclamation and an unexpected journey back to himself. What started out as a casual exploration of one of Dallas’ iconic Black bookstores — Pan African Connection (PAC) — quickly became the catalyst for one of Asota’s most prominent projects.
After traveling to more than 20 countries as a producer (Asota recently worked on programs like Netflix's Love Is Blind, Last Chance U: Basketball and America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders), he decided to risk it all for an institution that he describes as an experience, one that grabbed ahold of his soul and would not let go.
At the Pan-African Connection is the Dallas native’s debut documentary, and one that Asota hopes will spur conversation and, most importantly, local action. In chronicling the state of Black America’s socioeconomic progress, Asota turns the lens towards the PAC as one of Dallas’ long-standing symbols of community power and resilience. With the initial screening set to take place on Saturday, May 17, at the Angelika Film Center, Asota is admittedly a bundle of nerves.
“I feel a bit nervous and a bit excited,” the first-time filmmaker says. “I don’t like to make things about myself. I want it to impact the people it was intended for. When you put your heart out there, there’s no guarantee that the people you’re trying to connect with are going to love it.”
The film became a four-year project for Asota, constantly beckoning him from the humdrum of L.A. life and summoning him into a deeper passion brimming with culture, connection and self-identity. Asota was ensconced in the Pan-African Connection, and it began immediately from the first time he walked in.
“It was this feeling of being connected,” he says. “Being from Dallas and being from the inner city, I have never experienced what it’s like to really be a part of a productive community. Pan African Connection felt real, genuine and productive. It was something I could really learn from.”
Asota’s story is not a singular one — many other Dallasites have echoed similar sentiments about PAC, and for those within the Black community specifically, PAC has allowed them to reconnect to their roots. It was this “cultural education” as Asota terms it, that gave him the fuel to conceptualize his new documentary.
“Tony was new to this,” says Akwete Tyehimba, CEO and co-founder of Pan-African Connection. “It was eye-awakening every time he would come in the store and [when] he would hear these conversations going on. He would see these people saying ‘Hey brother, hey sista!’ He’d also hear people having these conversations about Black liberation and our struggle and our history, and seeing people dressed in African clothing, walking strong in who they are – and for Tony, that meant a lot.”
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More than a bookstore: the new film highlights Pan-African Connection's journey to becoming a cultural community center for art, music and gathering.
Courtesy of Anthony Asota
Asota's prize was to sum up a cultural awakening in a 1-hour, 18-minute film. But it was no easy feat—he says it took two years just to narrow down the documentary’s scope.
“I was first going to do a historical doc from the past to the present of the bookstore, but once I started to interview people and talk to them, I just realized that this place and places like these tell a bigger story for all of us,” Asota says.
Throughout its 36-year legacy, Pan-African Connection has evolved from being solely a bookstore to now serving as an art gallery, resource center, and, most importantly, a community gathering space. For Tyehimba, the multifaceted reach of PAC was always her vision for the institution, which was birthed by her late husband, Bandele Tyehimba.
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“Bandele’s intent [for PAC] was always about community life. It is used as a tool for us to bring people under the umbrella of Pan-Africanism — having them learn more about who they are as African people, connect to Africa and being proud of where they come from,” Tyehimba says. “It was always Bandele’s desire to have a space where we could raise the consciousness of our people, have a correct analysis of our history, our struggles, the sacrifices of our ancestors, and understand our responsibility to continue that work. We have a historical responsibility to people like Marcus Garvey, Harriett Tubman, Malcolm X. That same drive and desire for liberation is in our hands, and we can’t give it up.”
At the Pan-African Connection not only documents Asota’s personal journey to cultural re-discovery, but it also features powerhouse voices such as Leo Hassan (musician, educator and community fixture at PAC) and Jerry Hawkins (historian, archivist and educator). The film also draws on the scholarship of authors Dr. Joy DeGruy (Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome) and Dr. Claud Anderson (PowerNomics), as Asota explores generational trauma, internalized oppression and systemic exclusion, while also encouraging viewers to take action.
The documentary’s release on May 17 is crucial in a moment when history is being undermined through erasure and constant scrutiny. However, for Tyehimba, storytelling within and outside of the Black community is part of the solution.
“History is painful, but we’ve always found joy in the pain — even in our struggle,” she says. “History is not always pretty, especially for African people in this country, but you have to deal with the truth. You have to understand your past to know how to move forward. As a community, we have so many stories inside of us — cookbooks, recipes and more. These are the stories that come from the voices of our people. Our stories, through our own voices, must be told.”
At the Pan-African Connection, a film by Asota Seven Arts & Entertainment, premieres on Saturday, May 17, at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas. The doors will open at 5 p.m., and the screening will begin at 6 p.m.