Cameras follow Patricia Kingori, the youngest Black woman professor in Oxford’s 925-year history, on her compelling and eye-opening global investigation into Kenya’s hidden essay mills — an industry where an estimated 40,000 highly educated yet underemployed Kenyans make ends meet by writing academic papers for wealthy Western students.
Filmed across continents, Eloïse King’s documentary explores global education inequality, the ethics of contract cheating and buying knowledge, and the human cost of a billion-dollar underground economy that is completely invisible in the West. The Shadow Scholars shows how ambition, survival, exploitation, and systemic injustice collide — even at school.
Oct 9 & 10: Q&A
Supported by
UK
2024
In English and Swahili with English subtitles
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Steve Mcqueen, Professor Patricia Kingori, Ben Coren, Sacha Mirzoeff, Ollie Madden, Anna Godas, Oli Harbottle, Shanida Scotland, Hannah Bush Bailey
Producer
Eloïse King, Anna Smith Tenser, Bona Orakwue, Tabs Breese
Screenwriter
Eloïse King
Editor
Cinzia Baldessari, Julian Quantrill
Original Music
Keir Vine, Nyokabi Kariuki
Eloïse King
Eloïse King is a queer, London-born Caribbean filmmaker whose interdisciplinary work centers marginalized voices within mainstream culture. A former Global Executive Producer at VICE, she led an award-winning international documentary team. Her credits include The Gatherings, Gurls Talk, and Amy Winehouse & Me. Her work has shown at Tate Britain and V&A. A Logan, Firelight, and Netflix Fellow, her debut narrative feature YOUTS was selected for the BFI LFF Network industry programme.
Filmography: Slacker (1990); Dazed and Confused (1993); Before Trilogy (1995-2013); Bernie (2011); Boyhood (2014); Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022)