David Koff

Mau Mau

Anthony Howarth, David Koff

Musindo Mwinyipembe

In October 1952 the British government declared a State of Emergency in Kenya. Its object: the defeat of "Mau Mau." In the war that followed, fewer than 40 of Kenya's 40,000 white settlers were killed while more than 15,000 Africans lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands more were arrested and subjected to a humiliating and often brutal process of "rehabilitation." But what was Mau Mau? A movement based, according to the British Colonial Secretary, on a "perverted nationalism and a sort of nostalgia for barbarism"? Or the Land Freedom Army, an organized political and military response to repression and armed aggression? Using newsreel and previously inaccessible archive footage, and drawing on interviews with participants on both sides, Mau Mau examines the myth and the reality of Africa's first modern guerrilla war.

White Man's Country

Anthony Howarth, David Koff

Musindo Mwinyipembe

In the late 19th century, Britain, France, Germany and other European states agreed on the division of Africa into a patchwork of colonies, and set about exploring and exploiting their new possessions. White Man's Country combines period photographs and contemporary location footage with the testimony of African and European witnesses, to examine both sides of Europe's "civilizing mission" in Africa.

Blacks Britannica

David Koff

Darcus Howe, Colin Prescod

A documentary illustrating the black community's understanding of, and response to, racism in Britain. It presents from a black working class perspective, an analysis of racism within the context of British history and the post-war crisis of the British economy. At the same time the film reflects the increasingly militant response within the black community to the continuing attacks upon it, both by organised fascist elements on the streets, and by the state itself.

Occupied Palestine

David Koff

Long before the first Intifada drew international media to focus on Palestinian life under Israeli rule, David Koff produced this in-depth portrait of the daily conflict being waged in Israel/Palestine. It was recently rediscovered. With a combination of candid interviews and remarkable historic footage, Occupied Palestine unpicks the strategic and ideological motors of Israeli rule in Palestine, powerfully depicting that the roots of today's crises were firmly planted in the ground decades ago. Met with bomb threats and censorship on its initial release in the US in 1981, Occupied Palestine remains a singular work of engaged filmmaking and a unique record of an overlooked chapter in the course of the conflict.