NO TURNING BACK

Growing up in Accra, Ghana, Som idolized directors like Spike Lee and John Singleton, but being a film director was not a ‘realistic’ career path growing up in a conservative middle class Ghanaian family where the measuring stick of success was either becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer. To keep the peace, Som kept his creative aspirations under wraps until a college scholarship to America gave him a bit more room to ruffle his creative plumage. First it was music, then screenwriting, then acting. It was one evening on the set of fast 7 in 2013, on which he was standing in for Tyrese Gibson that he had a brief but impactful conversation with Director James Wan. Like a Nike commercial, James told me ’Dude just do it’ .This was on a Tuesday night. By that Saturday, he had assembled a rag tag crew of friends and was shooting his first short film, No Turning Back in his backyard. The final version was well received at a few festivals both locally and globally. He then set his sight on his next project, a feature film called Doctor Impostor he had written a few years prior. Although it has been five years in the making it has been an amazing self-teaching experience. An idea for a travel documentary was birthed about three years ago, on a trip to Japan which was meant to be a break from filming his feature film. Twelve episodes of Travelonaire later, the cameras are still rolling. His most recent endeavor, is the improvisational sitcom From the Motherland. Som is fine tuning his craft directing his independent projects, music videos and commercials for clients and has plans to direct for network television as well as the silver screen sooner than later. To hear Som tell it, ‘The sky ain’t the limit’.