Migrant Media

In August 2011 Britain was on fire - what was the spark that led to the crisis? When Mark Duggan was shot by the police the scene was set for a confrontation but it was not the first time. In this grass-roots documentary we hear why Tottenham burned, show how the flames spread and look at the deep-rooted reasons that have set fires blazing in the last three decades. Four people in this small community, all black and working class, have died at the hands of the police and this film retraces their story. Powerful witness testimonies are balanced against police reaction to the violence that exploded and the film offers a fresh political analysis of the cause of the uprising. Exploring ideas of collective memory ‘Burn’ is poetry for the people. This radical film bears witness that only justice for those that have died at the hands of the police can put out the fires.

'Tasting Freedom' documents the struggles of asylum seekers in Britain for recognition of their basic human rights and investigates abuses on asylum seekers in detention centres and prisons. The documentary gives a startling account of how people who have come to Britain to find freedom are instead persecuted.

The story always begins with death. Jason McPherson loses his life in shocking circumstances after being taken to Notting Hill Police Station - the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) begin an internal investigation into the ‘incident’. Jason’s family is devastated and then angered when they discover what happened. Using exclusive CCTV footage and rare access to an IPCC Commissioner the film lays bare the impact of a death in police custody. The search for the truth by Jason’s sister runs parallel to the filmmaker’s investigation of light. This radical documentary film combines moving testimonies, poetry and a political analysis of state violence. Emotional and disturbing, ‘Po Po’ is more evidence that the IPCC are complicit in the lack of successful prosecutions of police officers for deaths in their custody. In the end, what emerges in the light is the need for resistance.

15 years after Ken Fero’s ground-breaking film Injustice, which examined deaths in police custody, comes a compelling follow-up that feels as timely as ever.

Special documentary examining the death of Joy Gardner in 1993 and the subsequent public campaign that culminated in the trial at the Old Bailey of those accused of causing her death.

Between 1969 and 1999 over 1000 died in police custody in Britain. In this controversial documentary four women fight to find out how their own loved ones died. Each family is met with a wall of official silence and the film documents how they unite and challenge this together. The documentary uses powerful exclusive footage filmed over a five year period and witnesses the families' pain and anger at the killings.

Sean Rigg dies in a caged area in Brixton Police Station in August 2008 and the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) are called in to investigate. Sean's family are shocked at the death and this soon turns to anger when the government appointed IPCC begin to make error after error in its inquiry - is it incompetence or collusion? Sean's family begin a four year struggle to investigate the death themselves and in the process ask 'Who Polices The Police?'

In Birmingham in 2010 the police covertly erected 200 CCTV cameras for ‘Project Champion’ – an anti-terrorist initiative targeting Muslims - which incensed members of the communities it was ring fencing. This documentary is the story of how Project Champion was successfully opposed by community and civil rights activists.

Truth is the first casualty of war and 'Newspeak' explores just how media is currently controlled in the UK through power structures like Ofcom. Using poetry and experimental visual techniques the film is a personal journey with filmmaker Ken Fero reflecting on how the radical content of certain images - deaths in police custody, Occupy London the invasion of Iraq, workers uprisings - remain hidden from UK audiences.

When 'Allied' forces launched a war against Iraq in 1991 the Arab community in Britain sat horrified as they witnessed on television the death of innocent civilians and the destruction of a country. 'After The Storm' takes us through the experiences of a settled Arab community of Iraqi, Palestinian and Yemeni children, writers, political activists and steelworkers. It examines how Arabs are attacked and despised in the media and how this is manipulated to sway public opinion in times of war.