Canadian Premiere
Academic ghostwriting isn’t a side hustle — it’s a billion-dollar global industry. In Kenya, tens of thousands of underemployed graduates power this shadow economy, producing essays, theses, and dissertations for students across the Global North. Directed by Eloïse King and shaped by the insights of Oxford professor Patricia Kingori, The Shadow Scholars follows figures like Mercy, a single mother supporting her daughter one assignment at a time. What emerges is a startling portrait of brilliance exploited and authorship outsourced — where knowledge flows unevenly across borders, credited to some, extracted from others.
Executive produced by Steve McQueen, this urgent debut feature spans three continents to uncover the ethical fractures of higher education. King crafts a layered meditation on digital labor, racial capitalism, and intellectual theft — restoring dignity to workers long erased by academia’s black markets. With visually anonymized interviews and bold formal choices, The Shadow Scholars is not just a film about cheating, but about the cost of brilliance when opportunity is reserved for the few.
Oct 10: Q&A
Media Partner
UK
2024
In English and Swahili with English subtitles
Sexual language, violence
Open to youth!
Indigenous & Community Access
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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)
Insights
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The Shadow Scholars
Academic ghostwriting is a billion-dollar industry, just not for those doing the writing. Directed by Eloïse King and executive produced by Steve McQueen, this is a gripping documentary about brilliance, erasure, and global inequality.
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Image: © The New York Times
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