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

Current Educational Foci:

1. Use of film as a participatory circular research methodology.

2. Documenting obstinate memory with to release trauma.

3. Use of experimental media to express neurodiversity.

I am a filmmaker, visual artist and media-based activist educator. Over the last 30 years my core area of interest has been to document the experiences of communities of interest around issues of race and class. The research outputs of this praxis have been as creative interruptions to dominant ideologies, using the visual to act as a focus of dissent and to employ film to disrupt accepted notions. I have directed a number of award-winning films producing high profile commissions for Channel 4, BBC, FR3 and PressTV as well as the internationally acclaimed radical cinematic documentary feature Injustice (2001) about deaths in police custody in the UK. I have since produced a stream of poetic essay films on similar subjects. I was recently given a mini-retrospective of my work at the National Film Theatre. Most recent film Ultraviolence (2020) is in distribution by the British Film Institute.

I specialise in documentary research and production and 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 research 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 was a consultant on the Arts and Humanities Research Council supported ‘Creative Interruptions’ project supervising documentary film makers in Palestine making films that reclaim the imagery of their heritage. Media practitioner on AHRC funded ‘Nursing  Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic’ with Sheffield Hallam University.

Selected Films:

2020                            ULTRAVIOLENCE (75minutes/UK/Migrant Media)

                                    Winner Best Documentary – Latitude Film Awards 2002, Winner Truth Seeker Award Feature Film – Queen’s World Film Festival 2021, Winner Audience Award Arbetar Film    Festival 2021, Winner Best Documentary British Urban Film Festival 202.

2014                            BURN (30 minutes/UK/Migrant Media)

2013                            POPO (25 minutes/UK/Migrant Media).

2012                            WHO POLICES THE POLICE (52 minutes/UK/Migrant Media)

2011                            NEWSPEAK (25minutes/PressTV)

2011                            DEFEAT OF THE CHAMPION (25minutes/PressTV)

2001                            INJUSTICE (98 minutes/Migrant Media)

Winner Best Documentary - BFM London Film Festival 2002,  Winner National Social Justice Award 2003, Winner Best Documentary (Human Rights) - One World Film Festival 2003.

1995                            JUSTICE DENIED (52minutes/Channel 4 TV)

1994                            TASTING FREEDOM (52minutes/Channel 4 TV)

1992                            SWEET FRANCE (52minutes/Channel 4 TV)

Winner Mentione Speciale Images du Monde Arabe and Milano Province Prize 5th Festival of African Cinema.

Recent Publications:

'Resistant Imagery in Struggles for Justice' in No Justice, No Police? The Politics of Protest and Social Change' by Matt Clement. Zer0 Books. ISBN 978 1 78904 945 9

Fero, K. Obstinate memory: Documentary as trauma in disrupting state narratives on racial violence. Viewfinder Magazine. 2021.

Further Details:

I am a practice-based media lecturer with a focus on production and an international reputation as a documentary filmmaker. I have 30 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. 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.

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