Kindness vs. the Home Office

A short film from writers and activists Hamja Ahsan (Shy Radicals) and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, accompanied by a live discussion and collection of resources.

How does the state security apparatus combine extrovert supremacy, Islamophobia and racism? Could our silence actually protect us?

‘People used to gang up on me cause I was quiet. And the reason was that I was unknowable. I thought of it more deeply: when I think of colonial violence, and its roots in the Enlightenment, we think of the desire to know everything. Everything has to be knowable… why can’t some people be content with not knowing? ‘

This new work captures these two important writers in candid conversation outside the UK Home Office on resistance to violent and pathologising state policy and features a powerful, moving poetry performance by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan.

The film release will be marked by a live conversation with Suhaiymah and Hamja, which is free to join on Instagram. It will be accompanied by an archive of resources – on deportation, on prisons, on campaigns – to offer inspiration to activists, thinkers and writers.

The film is produced by Tom Dream of Black Dog Films. An Instagram account will be required to stream the discussion.