Ken Fero

Experimental Media; Radical Documentary Production; Third Cinema; Media functioing in surveillance capitalism; Documentary V Hegemony; Collective Memory and anti-colonial struggle in visual imagery

I am a practice-based media lecturer with a focus on production and an international reputation as a documentary filmmaker. I have 20 years’ experience in television broadcast documentaries and a strong profile of practice work with internationally acclaimed documentaries to my credit including the groundbreaking film 'Injustice'.

I specialise in documentary research and production as well as artists experimental film. I engage in emerging digital media platforms using new technologies at the same time questioning their role as part of surveillance capitalism. My recent work includes film animation in the Economic and Social Research supported ‘Deport, Deprive, Extradite’ research project that investigated the shifting dynamics of racism and the security state. I am a consultant on the Arts and Humanities Research Council supported ‘Creative Interruptions’ project where I supervise artist documentary film makers in Palestine making films that explore and reclaim the imagery of their heritage.

I am interested in how artists and filmmakers can work with communities of interest over extended periods of time (measured in decades) where a more inclusive creative process can operate. Alexander Kluge has outlined the capacity of film as an instrument for pure research. This notion of a “utopia of film” is part of a research process that is embedded in all of my practice. My interest here is in the collision between culture, politics and society and in presenting a reality that has been hitherto ignored including how the visual formulates that. Researching resistance, and documenting is a “utopia of film” as a response to the narrow-casting that dominates society. In 2019 I took part in the Paris-London Music Connections at the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris exploring the links between migration, music and urban identities.

My practice and pedagogy is based around political film-making and community activism. Productions include 'Burn' (24 minutes/2014), 'Newspeak' (25minutes/2011) an experimental documentary essayist film on censorship, war and resistance. Also completed is 'Defeat of the Champion' (25minutes/2011) a broadcast commission about the campaign to remove CCTV systems imposed on a small Muslim community in Birmingham. The project explores the balance between counter-terrorism and the right to privacy. Students that I teach in the department are often involved in my production work, giving them valuable industry experience. Previous live projects have included filming of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine for which students were highly commended

I am currently producing a feature length experimental documentary about deaths in police custody for cinema release in 2020. As a writer I have published in a range of periodicals and newspapers including Sight and Sound, Red Pepper and the Voice. I have had profiles on the BBC, Channel 4, CNN and in the Guardian and the Observer, amongst others

From 1995 to 2001 I worked on 'Injustice'. Critically acclaimed, the film gained press coverage across national and international channels including CNN. 'Injustice' has been screened at over 70 film festivals around the world and I have travelled with the film across Europe, the US and the Middle East. A major screening of the film took place at the European Parliament where I also spoke. In the UK the film has regular local screenings. I hold Q and A sessions at many of the screenings and have debated the film with a range of guests including filmmakers such as Ken Loach, journalists such as Vikram Dodd and government officials such as the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith

Another strong area of interest is research and documentation into resistance to racism. This is evidenced in my film production work but also in my involvement in BEAT (Black Experience Archive Trust); a high successful research project that teaches black history to school students through the research and production of media work. It is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the City Bridge Trust

I am a founding member of Migrant Media, an independent media collective which undertook training schemes supported by the London Arts Board, UNESCO, Hackney Education Authority, Commission of the European Communities, British Film Institute, Trust for London, London Film and Video Development Agency and the Arts Council. I have organised conferences and Film Festivals at the National Film Theatre and I continue to present work at conferences, most recently the Documentary Now! Conference at Birbeck organised by Brunel University. I am also a project consultant at the Centre for Investigative Journalism