Capturing Conflict: Mo & Me

The Frontline Club is screening Mo & Me as part of the Capturing Conflict Film Festival showcasing a selection of the most important films about the risks journalists and filmmakers take in order to get their stories out.

No one captured Africa’s pain and passion more incisively than Mohamed Amin, photographer and frontline cameraman extraordinaire. He was the most famous photojournalist in the world, making the news as often as he covered it. ‘Mo’ trained his unwavering lens on every aspect of African life, never shying from the tragedy, never failing to revel in the success. Through the gaze of his camera lens, he showed the world what some were afraid to see and what most people wished they could ignore.

His coverage of the 1984 Ethiopian famine proved so compelling that it inspired a collective global conscience and the greatest act of giving in the 20th century. He and his work served as both the inspiration and as a catalyst for We Are The World/USA for Africa; Live Aid; Heal the World and Live 8. His reporting shamed the world into action and undoubtedly rescued a country from absolute destruction by famine.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, ‘Mo’ was our eyes on the frontline in every situation and his honest unwavering approach to photojournalism earned him the unconditional respect of both friends and enemies alike. Mo covered every major event in Africa and beyond, braving 29 days of torture, surviving bombs and bullets, even the loss of his left arm in an ammunition dump explosion, to emerge as the most decorated news cameraman of all time.

Mo’s remarkable life was cut tragically short in November 1996 when hijackers took over an Ethiopian airliner forcing it to crash land in the Indian Ocean killing 123 passengers and crew. Mo died on his feet as he attempted to negotiate and reason with the terrorists.

By any standards, Mo’s life was truly extraordinary; action-packed, full of pain and passion and inseparable from the troubled chronicle of emergent Africa.