The name Akim Macauley is a game changer. The man Akim Macauley is increasingly an enigma – not just as a cryptic force in the film and entertainment industry but for scaling the eclectic in Africa’s fast evolving entertainment business. As a film director, Macauley has stealthily moved from the quasi-maverick to the gates of the greats. As an entertainment corporate thinker, he is increasingly turning into a corporate powerbroker who changes the game for every artist, industry player or corporation he touches.
Somehow culture and nationality have failed to blur the invisible thread that links a certain breed of men in the film industry – binding them as would an indefinable umbilical cord into the only exclusive club in the film industry: Steven Spielberg, Tyler Perry, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Sir Ridley Scott, Akira Kurosawa, Lee Daniels, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Orson Welles, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone… Akim Macauley (amongst others). These men propel backers of their movies (be it investor backers, sponsor backers, advertisers or partners) from the level of success to the ranks of phenomenal profit makers. Today in Africa, it is the forward thinkers and inventive corporate executives who will and are beginning to recognize the entertainment industry virtuosos. In Akim Macauley’s case, the director is not only a film industry virtuoso, but a corporate entertainment power-broker.
When a film maker takes it upon himself to organize the premier of another film director’s work (as Macauley did for the premier of Victor Viyou’s Ninah’s Dowry in Maryland, USA), when a film maker steps out of filmmaking to set up a caretaker committee for his country’s entertainment industry – doubling as the diaspora coordinator for the country’s first ever diaspora film makers organization (CFI)… when a Cameroonian film maker breaks ranks with nationality and culture and crosses into corporate collaboration with power brokers of other African film industries particularly Nigerian and Ghanaian – taking active role in various high-profile awards initiatives, sitting on executive boards, taking on board and promoting the works and profile of West African actors, many of whom are today A-listers ( Van Vicker, Nadia Buari, Desmond Eliot to name a few)… when a film maker peels off his film industry coat and marches into the music, fashion and other entertainment sectors, exposing raw talents to international recognition… when a film director is a film producer, promoter, marketer, researcher and developer all at the same time, he transcends his artistic self and outdo his corporate portfolio. The fact that Akim Macauley carries out actions within the African entertainment industry because he recognizes the improbability of the sector developing otherwise, makes this young director/producer/promoter and entertainment pundit a show-biz visionary. Yet it is not any of these that places Macauley at the cusp of the greats. It is his audacity. Akim Macauley has got some balls!
Only fearless guts would give a man the knack for going where others need a thousand tons of thinking to even contemplate. How else would Akim Macauley have gotten his country’s national television to redirect programming for their regular broadcasts to provide live broadcast for his brainchild – Cameroon’s first ever academy awards: The Sonnah awards? The story of Sonnah Awards is a veritable gold mine for dreamers, visionaries, legend makers, ghost writers, poets, and novelists of all genres. And that story is for another time and another write-up, yet it is hard to pass up on a few of some of the ground-breaking moments of that awards’ extravaganza. For instance, the breaking into tears of Cameroonian’s musical legend Ben Decca on receiving his achievement award – the first ever in his career of 40 years on Cameroonian soil. Then there was the phenomenon of not only a journalist but a retired journalist mounting the glittering podium of Yaounde’s prestigious Hilton Hotel auditorium to receive a show-biz achievement award. Peter Esoka took his award with stunning modesty, recalling years of hard work that he did not know would one day lead to an award.
From honouring pundits like Peter Esoka, to celebrating fashionistas like Kibonen Nfi and Afro pop divas like Debra Debs, Akim Macauley’s Sonnah Awards has succeeded in stretching the conceptual boundaries of entertainment. Today in Cameroon, after just one (the first) Sonnah extravaganza in the country, Cameroonians are redefining the concept of entertainment: Film, music, dance, or even sport do no longer characterize entertainment. Yet all of the above facts are secondary… all the events that took place during the awards show are secondary. The real question is, how did Akim Macauley get to think so out of the comfort-zone of man-know-man awards events, to create his country’s definitive academy awards brand, and then see it become an industry success the likes of which takes instant international prominence? On second thoughts, perhaps this question is void, seeing as we are talking about a man who has made an art of stretching himself and setting trends. This is the man who peered outside the ordinary and created a trend that has become the norm, the man who did the seemingly unthinkable when he began inviting actors like Desmond Eliot across the seas from Africa to the US for movie projects? Contemporaries thought he was crazy when he took to doing this, but today this trend has become the norm.
Yes, Africa has reason to be proud. Of men like Akim Macauley, Africa has reason to be proud. With men like Akim Macauley, Africa has good reasons to hold its head high. On men like Akim Macauley only Africa’s Oprah Winfreys put their backing. That is why Oprah makes so much on many of the big names she has learnt to support in the past – from TV psychiatrists Dr. Phil to film prodigies Lee Daniels. I’m betting my bottom dollar on Africa’s entertainment golden child: Akim Macauley.
Source: THA BARBARA GWANMESIA REPORT
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