David Koff
Encyclopedia
David Richard Koff is an award-winning maker of documentary films, social activist, writer, researcher, and editor. His interest in social and economic justice has shaped a career largely spent exploring human rights
, colonialism
, resistance movements, racism
, labor unions, and the oppression and exploitation of undocumented workers in America. However, he veered from political concerns long enough to write and co-produce the film he may be best known for, People of the Wind for which, in 1976, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
in 1961, Koff traveled to West Africa, teaching in Sierra Leone
and participating in a voluntary work-camp project in Ghana
. As a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley
in 1964, he returned, this time to East Africa, where he did academic research as well as writing and editing at the Nairobi
-based East African Publishing House (EAPH). He was the uncredited ghostwriter of Field Marshal John Okello
's memoir, Revolution in Zanzibar (EAPH, 1967), and, under the pseudonym Richard Wakohozi worked closely with Waruhiu Itote
(General China) on his memoir, Mau Mau General (EAPH, 1967). He also traveled to Uganda
, Tanzania
, Zanzibar
and Madagascar
. Based in England from late 1969 to mid 1974, Koff returned to East Africa to film a series of documentary films for four months in 1970, then moved back to Nairobi in late 1974 to work as an editor for Transafrica Publishers.
. Koff's use of newsreels, photographs and then-contemporaneous interviews with those who lived through this tumultuous period, has been praised for its authenticity and archival value. Portions of some of these interviews have recently been included in Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, a 2007 film about the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Kenyan environmental activist, made by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater.
. The film follows the Bakhtiari, nomadic pastoralists,of Iran, as they make their way from winter to summer pastures. People of the Wind was nominated in 1976 for an Academy Award as Best Feature Documentary. It was narrated by actor James Mason
.
at the station due to its perceived overtly political content. The ensuing legal battle over censorship, the right to make final cuts, and airing and distribution, was widely debated in the media at the time.
Occupied Palestine, one of the first American films to look sympathetically at the Palestinian struggle for an independent homeland, and again engendering media debate.
, a position which included speech writing, the creation of many short in-house strategic organizing videos, and developing film archives of various actions (such as the 2005 'Banquet in the Streets', demonstrations, and campaigns, the largest of which was the 2003 Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. He served as founder and executive producer of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Documentary Project.
Other projects included The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, Koff's film, Windows, a film with the families and colleagues of immigrant workers killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, which premiered at the 2002 Latino International Film Festival. Another recent film, The New Haven Raids / Les Redadas de New Haven,with music by Ry Cooder
, has been described as "from the frontlines of a human and civil rights crisis that is worldwide",
and was selected by Cineculture as part of the spring 2008 series.
Koff's daughter, Clea Koff
, is a forensic anthropologist and writer, whose memoir of her work in Rwanda
and the former Yugoslavia for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal, The Bone Woman, has been published in many languages.
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
, resistance movements, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, labor unions, and the oppression and exploitation of undocumented workers in America. However, he veered from political concerns long enough to write and co-produce the film he may be best known for, People of the Wind for which, in 1976, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
Early Years: from the U.S. to Africa
Koff grew up in Van Nuys, California. After graduating from Stanford with an honors degree in political sciencePolitical science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
in 1961, Koff traveled to West Africa, teaching in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
and participating in a voluntary work-camp project in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. As a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1964, he returned, this time to East Africa, where he did academic research as well as writing and editing at the Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
-based East African Publishing House (EAPH). He was the uncredited ghostwriter of Field Marshal John Okello
John Okello
John Gideon Okello was an East African revolutionary and the leader of the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964. This revolution overthrew Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah and led to the proclamation of Zanzibar as a republic.-Youth:...
's memoir, Revolution in Zanzibar (EAPH, 1967), and, under the pseudonym Richard Wakohozi worked closely with Waruhiu Itote
Waruhiu Itote
Waruhiu Itote was one of the key leaders of the Mau Mau rebellion alongside Dedan Kimathi and General Stanley Mathenge and Musa Mwariama....
(General China) on his memoir, Mau Mau General (EAPH, 1967). He also traveled to Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. Based in England from late 1969 to mid 1974, Koff returned to East Africa to film a series of documentary films for four months in 1970, then moved back to Nairobi in late 1974 to work as an editor for Transafrica Publishers.
The African Films
Koff's early films reflect this period. In addition to many short projects, he produced and directed (with partner Anthony Howarth) and wrote The Black Man's Land Trilogy, released in 1972-73, narrated by Tanzanian broadcaster Msindo Mwinyipembe and with music by Peter Frampton. The three films, still widely-used in university African Studies programs, are White Man's Country, Mau Mau, and Kenyatta. The first explores the early stages of European settlement and colonial rule, and African resistance to it. The second focuses on the state of emergency declared by the British in Kenya in 1952, including the creation of the myth of a Mau Mau terrorist group to justify the suppression of the African nationalist movement. The third film is a critical biographical portrait of Kenya's first president, Jomo KenyattaJomo Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyattapron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation....
. Koff's use of newsreels, photographs and then-contemporaneous interviews with those who lived through this tumultuous period, has been praised for its authenticity and archival value. Portions of some of these interviews have recently been included in Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, a 2007 film about the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Kenyan environmental activist, made by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater.
People of the Wind
In 1976, Koff joined again with Howarth to make a documentary of a different kind, People of the WindPeople of the Wind
People of the Wind is a 1976 documentary film about the Bakhtiari people, produced by Anthony Howarth and David Koff. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature....
. The film follows the Bakhtiari, nomadic pastoralists,of Iran, as they make their way from winter to summer pastures. People of the Wind was nominated in 1976 for an Academy Award as Best Feature Documentary. It was narrated by actor James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
.
Blacks Britannica
In 1978, Koff returned to England for six months to make the film Blacks Britannica. Originally commissioned by the Boston public television station WGBH, it later "raised hackles"at the station due to its perceived overtly political content. The ensuing legal battle over censorship, the right to make final cuts, and airing and distribution, was widely debated in the media at the time.
Occupied Palestine
Koff next turned his attention to the Middle East, where he made the even more controversialOccupied Palestine, one of the first American films to look sympathetically at the Palestinian struggle for an independent homeland, and again engendering media debate.
Labor Movement Activity and Films
After returning to the U.S. in the 1980s, Koff worked as a strategic research analyst, filmmaker, and tactician with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, HEREHotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union
The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union , was a United States labor union representing workers of the hospitality industry, formed in 1891. In 2004, HERE merged with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees to form UNITE HERE. HERE notably organized the staff of Yale...
, a position which included speech writing, the creation of many short in-house strategic organizing videos, and developing film archives of various actions (such as the 2005 'Banquet in the Streets', demonstrations, and campaigns, the largest of which was the 2003 Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. He served as founder and executive producer of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Documentary Project.
Other projects included The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, Koff's film, Windows, a film with the families and colleagues of immigrant workers killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, which premiered at the 2002 Latino International Film Festival. Another recent film, The New Haven Raids / Les Redadas de New Haven,with music by Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
, has been described as "from the frontlines of a human and civil rights crisis that is worldwide",
and was selected by Cineculture as part of the spring 2008 series.
Later life
In 2006 Koff returned full-time to documentary filmmaking and, with independent producer and director Lyn Goldfarb, formed Organizing Video Productions. OVP works primarily with unions to make short films that organizers and rank and file leaders can use as tools to build their movement.Koff's daughter, Clea Koff
Clea Koff
Clea Koff is a British-born American forensic anthropologist who worked several years for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and in 2000 in Kosovo.-Early life:Koff, who...
, is a forensic anthropologist and writer, whose memoir of her work in Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
and the former Yugoslavia for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal, The Bone Woman, has been published in many languages.