MO AND ME

Kenya, 2005, 95 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Richard Mills.

This is a top-rate documentary, memorable for many reasons.

Journalists may be well aware of Mohammad Amin, the Kenyan cameraman and reporter who for decades scooped the stories, especially in Africa, but who brought to world attention through his images a number of crises. He died in 1996 and this is a tribute to him (personal warts and all) by friends and by his photographer son.

In 95 minutes, we are treated to an insightful portrait of Amin. We are also treated to a study of the role of photo and television journalism in the second half of the 20th century. Further, we are shown the man in action and footage he took from some of the key crises in Africa. It begins with Russian and East German training camps in the forests of Zanzibar in 1964 (which led to Amin’s month imprisonment and torture). It continues with a key assassination in the streets of Zanzibar, Kashmiri clashes and a close-up of Idi Amin in word and action.

It was Mohammad Amin who photographed Ethiopia in 1984 and offered the world photos of the famine – and this film includes Bob Geldof and the recording of We are the World. The 90s fighting in Ethiopia led to Amin losing an arm in an explosion but he kept going until he died in the crash of a hijacked plane off the Comoros in 1996.

A narration by his son is a fine combination of critique, love and respect. There are family interviews and helpful meetings with BBC reporters, some of whom visit the sites of action, especially in Ethiopia, 20 years later.

A satisfying and continually interesting portrait and study.