Ken Korda (born April 11, 1969) is an edgy underground film-maker also noted for his celebrated work as a broadcaster, comedy writer, philosopher and philanthropist.
Early Life
His father, Cam, and his Italian mother, Straituvidio, always encouraged the young wunderkind Ken in all his endeavours, but perhaps recognising where the boy's true talents really lay, they generously endorsed his love of movies early on with an old cinefilm camera presented to him on his 8th birthday. Yet, despite his precocity, nearly two decades would elapse before Korda released the critically acclaimed avant garde short that is Speeding On The Needlebliss.
Speeding On The Needlebliss
Undoubtedly his most famous work to date, Korda's fierce dedication to realism is constantly appreciable in the ever controversial Speeding On The Needlebliss, a depraved tale of love, lust and loyalty set in the heart of a Brixton underworld ruled by vicious, yet attractive, girl gangs, where drugs and guns are widely available and the language of the street is profane. Lauded for his authentic portrayal of urban decay and seemingly phantom-like ability to gain access to the darkest corners of society, Speeding On The Needlebliss chronicles the murderous rise and fall of subculture anti-heroes Sasha & Renk, two aspiring Jungle DJs, with a destructive taste for hard drugs, lesbian sex and the Fury Boogie.
Notoriously volatile on set and a self-confessed "ambition driven perfectionist" and a "slave to perfection," Korda admits that, as with many greats works, Speeding On The Needlebliss very nearly didn't see the light of day. When it was finally unleashed on an unsuspecting public, critical opinion varied wildly, ranging from "darkly poetic," "disturbingly accurate," "gratuitous scenes of drug use, murder and jungle music" and "obscenely real," to "like a 21st Century Clockwork Orange," and "not dissimilar to witnessing your own rape and execution, only ten times more harrowing". While the film was unanimously hailed as a future classic and Ken's status as a renegade auteur cemented in history, Speeding On The Needlebliss was deemed too graphic for the general public, its limited release cancelled and any initial interest from Carlton about a possible mini-series soon evaporated.
Undeterred, Ken has several more projects lined up, including the provisionally titled "Smack Me Up Gun Bitch" and "Soho Smackboys," both of which have been widely rumoured to commence shooting in the next year or so, and if early reports are to be believed it seems likely they're set to be even more extreme than Speeding On The Needlebliss.
With his obstinate reluctance to conform evident in all he does, it may appear as if mainstream success is destined to permanently elude Ken Korda, though as a true disciple of his chosen medium content to shoot intelligent indie films on tight budgets, this doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
Other Major Works
During the late 90s Ken wrote and presented Omniken, a deeply personal series of interviews with those considered culturally relevant or who'd had a profound impact on his life. Unlike similar programmes, Ken was no Parkinson-style sycophant, bringing instead his uncompromising, urban style to each interview, immediately apparent with his stark refusal to pander to celebrity status or conform to expectations. While Ken's no nonsense approach made for gripping television it often resulted in him coming dangerously close to alienating his subjects, guaranteeing Omniken was nothing short of compulsive viewing.
Post Speeding On The Needlebliss
Immense wealth and cult fame seem to have had little effect on Korda. Still residing in Brixton, he finds any suggestion of relocating absurd, citing the borough he's become synonymous with as more than just his home but his "concrete muse". His ardour and passion for producing what many term unpalatable slices of urban life also remains undimmed, as does his iconoclastic use of cutting-edge edit techniques and expansive visual metaphors. However, probably Ken's greatest legacy, as he freely admits, is as a human being, father and philosopher.
Trivia
- Ken was the first person to refuse an MBE before being offered one.
- Gave up passive smoking after his idol Roy Castle died from the disease.
- A big fan of the board game Monopoly, Ken explains his love is due to the fact that "you can experience what it's like to own hotels without the hassle of changing any beds."
- The movie Twins with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito is loosely based on his life.
- An unfulfilled ambition is to swim with dolphins, or any fish, if no dolphins are available at the time.
- Korda has many times resisted the urge to act, though he states that he'd reconsider his position if offered the chance to play Dave Benson-Phillips in a biopic of the great man.
