“They want our ideas, they just don’t want us.” In this essayistic documentary, Oxford professor Patricia Kingori explores the phenomenon of academic ghostwriting, which in recent years has not only developed into a multi-billion-pound digital industry, but also serves to perpetuate racist and colonial structures. In Kenya, particularly in Nairobi, there is a large number of young academics who, despite their degrees, struggle to find employment. Instead, they are forced to write essays for students at mostly Western elite universities in exchange for payment and under anonymous profiles. In doing so, the film not only raises questions regarding the corruption of academic integrity and the future of scholarly work itself, but also focuses in particular on the issue of the structural erasure and appropriation of Black academic perspectives.  

Through tranquil and historically contextualised images, director Eloise King approaches the subject step by step. In the process, a successful shift in perspective gradually takes place regarding the question of whether the role of ‘shadow scholars’ perhaps applies more to the non-academic users of essay portals than to the authors who have been unjustly overlooked by academia. (Clara von Taysen, CINEMATE) 

„A thought-provoking probe into the contract cheating industry… engrossing, morally nuanced” – Variety 

Moderated Q&A by Tessa Pittrof, Wiener Arbeitsfilmfestival

Freiticketkontingent sponsored by AK- abzuholen in der FAKTory