Brief Tender Light

A film by Arthur Musah

US Broadcast Premiere on PBS / POV – MLK Day, January 15th, 2024 at 9:30pm ET (and streaming through April 14th)

Synopsis

A Ghanaian filmmaker follows four African undergraduates through MIT, America’s premier technological university and his alma mater. The students embark on their MIT education with individual ambitions –  to engineer infrastructure in Tanzania; to secure a better life for family in Nigeria; to contribute to post-genocide reconstruction in Rwanda; to advance democracy in Zimbabwe. Their missions are distinct, but fueled by a common goal: to become agents of positive change back home.

 

While their dreams are anchored in the societies they have left, their daily realities are defined by America – by the immediate challenges in their MIT classrooms, and by the larger social issues confronting the world beyond those classrooms. Their new environment demands they adapt. Over an intimate, decade-long journey spanning two continents, students and filmmaker alike are forced to decide how much of America to absorb, how much of Africa to hold on to, and how to reconcile teenage ideals with the truths they discover about the world and themselves.

Documentary • 2023 • 93 mins • Color • HD (16:9) • Stereo/5.1

Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer,  Erika Dilday, Chris White

Director, Producer: Arthur Musah

Co-Producer: Brook Sitgraves Turner

Supervising Producer: Michael Kinomoto

Featuring: Philip Abel Adama, Fidelis Chimombe, Billy Ndengeyingoma, Sante Nyambo

International Sales: Cinephil

Educational Sales (North America): Collective Eye Films

Official Selection 2023, Newport Beach Film Festival Laurel
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Educational Sales

Upcoming Screenings

Past Screenings

  • New York City – January 5-11, 2024 – Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film – Tickets HERE.
    • Fri Jan 5, 7pm: Post-screening Q&A with Director Arthur Musah in conversation with Marcus Wright, Associate Producer, Sandbox Films.
    • Sat Jan 6, 3pm: Q&A with Director Arthur Musah in conversation with Ekwa Msangi, filmmaker of Sundance award-winning Farewell Amor.
    • Sun Jan 7, 12pm: Q&A with film participants Philip Abel Adama and Billy Ndengeyingoma, and director Arthur Musah in conversation with Karen McMullen, film curator and festival director/head of programming at Urbanworld Film Festival.
  • Washington DC – January 7 & 11, 2024 – Cafritz Hall, Edlavitch DCJCC – Tickets HERE.
    • Sun Jan 7, 6pm: Post-screening Panel: “Defining Home and What We Owe It: Perspectives from African Diasporas” with director Arthur Musah, cultural anthropologist M. Amah Edoh, writer/producer Douglas Dubois; moderated by Shaniqua McClendon, VP of Politics at Crooked Media.
    • Thu Jan 11, 7:30pm: Post-screening Q&A with director Arthur Musah, moderated by author and scholar Dr. Rajika Bhandari.

Press

Funding & Support

BRIEF TENDER LIGHT is a co-production of One Day I Too Go Fly Inc., American Documentary | POV, and Independent Television Service with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A Grant for this film was generously provided by the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, with support from Sandbox Films.

Made with support from California Film Institute’s DocLands DocPitch • Cinephilia Productions/Cinephilia Bound Cannes • DCTV’s Docu Work-In-Progress Lab • DOC NYC Only In New York • The Gotham Film & Media Institute • Hot Docs Forum • The Paley Center for Media • Hundreds of Kickstarter Backers

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