TIPTOPSTARS

The board which has since Saturday March 23 been at the helm of the film industry in Cameroon has been tasked to draft a suitable and befitting constitution for the sector. The urgent call came from the Cameroonian Minister of Culture, through her director of cinematography during the first ever elective General Assembly of the Cameroon Film Industry, CFI which held in the capital Yaounde. The said constitution, the Minister’s representative mentioned, was at the centre of controversy which has marked the CFI for the past couple of years. The board, made up of 16 members is constituted from the various guilds which have also been formed and are now actively functional. It is going to run the affairs of the industry throughout its mandate and report to the GA according. The board will be chaired by Otia Vitalis, one of the industry’s most renowned elderly actors, voted at the GA. Otia came over Waa Musi, erstwhile president of the now defunct CFI Caretaker Committee.

Saturday’s GA was a singular occasion for film makers to express their opinions as well as air out grievances. One of such worries was the fact that a president should be at the help of the film industry. As a way forward, the CFI caretaker committee was literary dissolved and the position of president, which had become a too-hot-to-bear issue suppressed.

Reports and action plan reviews characterized the famous GA, but the most prominent were ‘fix-it’ attitudes, marked the display of ‘change needed’ and ‘way forward’ placards. There were report contestations, outspoken opinions and perhaps lessons to be learned. But, the top agenda for the day, elections held.

Contrarily to the initial plan by the Caretaker Committee, elections moved from choosing the president with the list system to voting a board chair. And that is how Otia Vitalis rose to be board chair and was, on the same day, installed to begin his functions.

Prior to voting, in his out-going address, Waa Musi enjoined film makers to embrace the task working hard for the growth of the industry. Waa stated that   stakeholders should be more interested in the drive than in power.

At the close of the GA, it was clear the industry is now run by guilds and so far five exist - actors’ guild, producers’ guild, directors’ guild, technicians’ guild and writers’ guild.

As the film stakeholders walked out of the MINCULT conference hall Saturday after 10 ‘no play’ hours of deliberations, their faces and minds apparently read: “Did we make the right choices or we just committed another fatal error?” “Well, let’s watch and see how the reformed film industry takes off,” they told themselves.

Here is the board elected to run the industry on a day-to-day basis:

Forminka T.Nestoral (Bamenda)

Ngoto Noutossi (Bamenda)

Angu Chi Elizabeth (Bamenda)

Elung Brenda (Bamenda)

Agbor Gilbert Ebot (Buea)

Godlove Neba Nyambi (Bamenda)

Macauley Akim (USA)

Godwill Neba (Bamenda)

Vitalis Otia Suh (Yaounde)

Yibain Emile-Aime Chah (Buea)

Etiendem Romanus (Dschang)

Solange Yijika (Yaounde)

Elvis Tanwie (Yaounde)

Esua Julius Fossung (Kumba)

Alasambom Nyintchou (Yaounde)

Alenne Menget (Douala)