Salim Amin’s long walk to fulfilment in his father's gigantic shoes

Some children live in the shadows of their fathers.

Others, like filmmaker and entrepreneur Salim Amin, build on their father’s legacies while standing on their own.

The heir to one of Africa’s largest and TV production firms, Salim became the reluctant leader of Camerapix after the death of his father in a plane crash in 1996.

“My father’s death at the hands of terrorists put him at the centre of a global story. It was a big loss to our family,” he says.

But that hasn’t stopped Salim from making Camerapix a major media voice in 21st century Africa.

From a small shop in Dar-es-Salaam, Salim’s father, Mohamed Amin, began Camerapix in 1963.

He built it into a world-class organisation covering news and features and producing documentaries with many networks, including BBC, NBC and Reuters.

MOHAMED AMIN FOUNDATION

Salim has continued that tradition by helping educate the youth through the Mohamed Amin Foundation and as a founder of Africa24 Media, a platform dedicated to positive stories about the culture and history of the continent.

He was recognised in 2007 as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Camerapix works with production partners in Africa, Europe, Asia and the US.

New African magazine recognised Salim as one of the top “100 most influential Africans” and named him among its “Top 50 Under 50.”

Salim was one of 150 leaders invited to Barack Obama’s 2010 summit on Presidential Entrepreneurship in Washington DC.

His work as a producer includes feature documentary Mo & Me, the One.org production of Revisiting Korem and executive producing the award-winning documentary The Sound Man.

Salim achieved acclaim for his production of more than 150 episodes of The Scoop.