One of the artistic fields most dominated by white men is
filmmaking, specifically directing. However, Cameroonian
movie director and producer, Enah Johnscott, is taking
steps
steps to change that.
Born in March of 1982, in Wum, Cameroon, Johnscott first
broke into film with his 2012 movie Triangle of Tears, a drama
starring Akwa Desmond. He then went on to direct movies such as
Decoded (2012), Whispers (2013), and The African Guest (2013). He
also directed the TV show, Samba, which was nominated for
awards at the Pan African Film and Television Festival of
Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in 2017. This film festival is biannual
and highlights films that were made by African filmmakers and
were primarily shot in Africa.
In 2020, Johnscott won his biggest award yet for his film The
Fisherman’s Diary. Directed and co-written by Johnscott, the film
follows a young girl as she struggles to achieve education in a
village of fishermen, where girls’ education is seen as taboo. This
movie was nominated for seven awards and won five, three of
which were at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMMAs) and
the rest were at the Leonid Khromov International Film Festival
(LKIFF). Johnscott specifically won Best Screenplay at the AMMAs
and won Best Director in a Jury Prize at LKIFF. The movie was
also selected as the Cameroonian entry for the 93rd Academy
Awards in the International film category.
The Fisherman’s Diary is currently streaming on Netflix, and
with a sound rating of seventy-eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes,
it’s definitely worth the watch. Unfortunately, much of Johnscott’s
early work is not streaming anywhere, but The Fisherman’s Diary is
a fascinating look into education for girls and what it means to be a
woman in a world dominated by men
