I’ve been able to combine my love of the world with my love for documentary by teaching students here and abroad. I was humbled by a class of Burmese refugees in a Thai border town, where each student brought incredible life experiences and stories to the table—an amputee soldier, a woman artist with leprosy, and the funeral service for a fallen rebel soldier. Several played at a festival in Thailand in 2026. Each student had some film training and had seen both fiction and nonfiction films from around the world. The task was to help them shape their ideas from their heads and hearts onto the screen.
My students in Havana came from the US, Canada, China, New Zealand, and Cuba, and had completed 1 semester of university-level film school. The challenge was how to teach documentary film form as well as camera and sound technique, and aesthetics—in one semester. Like most cities, Havana has a million stories, providing starting points for the diverse set of interests and abilities of the students.
My favorite lesson plan involves the evolution of a scene, where we start by screening a reel of dailies, and watch it evolve into the selects reel, the first assembly, first cut, a subsequent cut, and the final version, mixed and graded, in the context of a finished film.
Teaching has taken me around the world, and is part of my own continuing education. The students I guest-lectured in Doha, Qatar, came from around the middle east and Central Asia, and broke my few remaining stereotypes of people from those cultures.
“I have known Ken for over forty years. He’s a highly-skilled and much-respected documentary producer, director, and editor. Ken has also been a guest filmmaker several times in my Documentary Filmmaking class at City College of San Francisco. He’s an excellent, empathic teacher and a clear and dynamic communicator who genuinely cares about mentoring young documentary filmmakers. He is also one of the smartest, nicest, and kindest members of our illustrious Bay Area documentary community. Any college, university, or media program would be lucky to have Ken on their faculty.”
David L. Brown
Retired instructor, Cinema Department, City College of SF
THREE-TIME EMMY WINNER“Ken’s teaching style is discussion-based. He is engaging, inquisitive, and a good listener. He has the students’ best interest at heart, asking questions to understand better the demographics he's working with and making suggestions on how to better serve the group in front of him. Ken is socially conscious and brings this into his work and teaching. ”
PAULA ARRIGONi Cedar Bryant-cole
EXecutive Directo, BAVC BAVC Media Workforce“An artist of Ken's creative ability and experience level is rarely available to teach, and we considered it a huge coup. Ken did not disappoint, teaching our students the ins and outs of the documentary form. We received terrific feedback about Ken's ability to engage with students, to teach clearly and concisely, and to leave students excited about pursuing a career in documentary film.”
Sally Rubin
Chair, documentary film program, chapman University