Thanks to my friend Salim Amin, I was able to see a very advance screening of his new film Mo & Me the other night. It is a loving but honest appraisal of his dad's remarkable life and career.
Most people will know Mo Amin as the man who shot that Ethiopian footage which transformed the rat Bob Geldof into a bona-fide saint. Salim avoids sentimentality and presents his dad to us in all of his flawed glory. This was one bad-tempered skinflint who always got his story - and his invoices (which always included the price of postage) in on time.
The film is also a colourful visual history of Africa, which was largely captured by Mo's arsenal of cameras. His nose for news stories often led him to the good, bad and ugly; a chance telephone call resulted in an unlikely friendship with Uganda's Idi Amin, who thought they were related because they shared a surname.
Mo's greatest legacy was his work - and his son, who has created a magnificent portrait of his life.
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