TIPTOPSTARS

Art and culture journalist, film reporter and editor of TIPTOPSTARS, Ernest Kanjo has been honoured again. At a recent Cameroon Actors’ Guild (CAMAG) convention, Kanjo was served with an award (Best Film Culture Promoter in Cameroon). The journalist received his prize from director Neba Lawrence (himself a laureate for the evening) who confessed Kanjo had given his all to catapult the Cameroonian film industry to greater heights.  “In fact, the industry cannot pay him for what he has done, is it trailing us to movie locations, profiling our actors in newspapers, blogs, magazines or reporting regularly on issues about the industry?” Neba questioned rhetorically.

On his part, the film communicator who earlier on gave a 190-slide power point slide presentation on Cameroonian actors humbly shared the honour with star actress Solange Yijika whom Kanjo confessed had been his source of inspiration over the years. “She is the first Cameroonian actress from whom I witnessed acting tears run quickly down her cheeks each time she was asked by her director to do so,” the laureate revealed. And added: “Her performance rang a bell to me that the country was on the way to produce some of Africa’s most talented actors – that is how I vowed to promote the seventh art with all my might.”

Reacting to Kanjo, actress Solange expressed surprise for such honours. “I didn’t know it had come to that – Ernest has always encouraged me to stay on board even when I have thought of backing out,” she confessed. “What just happened now tells me he is bent on seeing my acting career succeed and I’ll not let him down,” she went further.

The most recent is the 6^th award Kanjo is receiving from his country’s growing film industry. He is well known for his contribution to the development of film making in Cameroon through the media. Some of the outfits through which the film reporter has projected the seventh art in Cameroon have been Among Youths magazine, The Standard Tribune, The Guardian Post and www.tiptopstars.com Kanjo who is a founder/member of the African Arts Journalists Network (AAJN) is a film critique trainee and initiator of the Critical Eye Film Forum (CEFF), a forum to preview and review Cameroonian films done in the English language in a bid to encourage good quality.