BRIEF TENDER LIGHT, A film by Arthur Musah
At an elite U.S. university, a Ghanaian alum follows four African students striving to become agents of change for home in the new documentary BRIEF TENDER LIGHT
New York Theatrical Release Jan. 5-11, 2024 in NYC at Firehouse: DCTV's Cinema for Documentary Film
Screens in Washington, DC at JxJ: DC Jewish Film & Music Jan. 7, 9, 10 and 11, 2024
National TV Broadcast Premiere on PBS’s POV on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Jan. 15, 2024
A Ghanaian filmmaker (Arthur Musah) follows four African undergraduates through MIT, America’s premier technological university and his alma mater in the new documentary BRIEF TENDER LIGHT, which WBUR (Boston’s NPR) says, “delicately layers the unique opportunities with the obstacles Black Africans face as they confront American culture, including its embedded racism.”
After winning several awards on the film festival circuit this fall, BRIEF TENDER LIGHT will have a week-long awards-qualifying (for 2024 consideration) theatrical release in New York, multiple times per day from Jan. 5-11, 2024, at Firehouse: DCTV's Cinema for Documentary Film, and will also screen in Washington, DC at JxJ: DC Jewish Film & Music in Cafritz Hall on Jan. 7, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. and at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 9-11, 2024. PBS’s multiple Emmy®, Peaboby, duPont, and Academy® Award-winning series POV, will also debut BRIEF TENDER LIGHT for its national TV broadcast premiere on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Jan. 15, 2024 at 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings), and then it will be available for streaming at pbs.org, and the PBS App until April 14, 2024.
In BRIEF TENDER LIGHT, 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, nearly 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.
“At its core, Brief Tender Light is about whether youthful idealism can survive the process of growing up,” said Musah. “At the onset, I considered following African youths at different stages of college for a single year. As I developed the idea, it became clear that it would be more adequate that the project become a longitudinal documentary filmed over nearly a decade, in order to answer the questions that intrigued me. How does time, and iterations of trying and failing on projects gradually transform one into an engineer? How does a new world become home? How does a Black African become aware of racism in America? How does one’s identity shift, and how do different people weigh living for their community’s expectations versus their own desires? As a gay man, I also drew on my experience of turning away from Ghana and towards America in search of freedom to inform the film.”
About the Director:
Arthur Musah is a filmmaker from Ghana, Ukraine, and the United States. His 50-minute Naija Beta (2016) played at festivals in the U.S., Africa and Europe, and won the Roxbury International Film Festival’s Best Documentary Short and the Silicon Valley African Film Festival’s Achievement in Documentary awards, among others. Musah studied filmmaking in the M.F.A. program at the University of Southern California as an Annenberg Fellow. He also earned a bachelor’s and a master’s in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and worked as an engineer. Brief Tender Light is his first feature. It secured co-productions from ITVS and American Documentary | POV, won the 2020 Paley Doc Pitch competition, and has been supported by the Sundance Sandbox Fund, the DCTV Docu Work-In-Progress Lab, Cinephilia Bound, the California Film Institute’s DocLands DocPitch, the Hot Docs Forum, the Gotham Documentary Lab, and hundreds of backers on Kickstarter.
About the Co-Producer:
Brook Sitgraves Turner is a graduate of UC-Berkeley and USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program. Raised in a multigenerational family of Black women, she’s focused on inclusive storytelling across many mediums: film, television, podcasts and children’s books. She has been a member of Film Independent’s Project Involve Fellowship, has produced documentaries and The New York Times-recognized podcasts, and has written on television shows for Fox, Paramount and ABC. She also founded a health equity mutual aid organization that’s supported over 1,000 families in Los Angeles County.
Credits
Arthur Musah - Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Writer
Sally Jo Fifer, Erika Dilday, Chris White - Executive Producers
Brook Sitgraves Turner - Co-Producer
Michael Kinomoto - Supervising Producer
Thomas G. Miller, ACE - Consulting Producer
Kelly Creedon - Editor, Writer
Keith Fulton - Editor
Brian Redondo - Editor
Ted Reichman - Composer
Nathaniel Krause - Colorist
Amy Reed - Sound Designer & Mixer
Documentary, 93 minutes, Color, HD (16:9), Stereo and 5.1 Sound Mixes available, USA
A co-production of One Day I Too Go Fly Inc., American Documentary | POV, and Independent Television Service (ITVS) 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.
Follow:
Web: brieftenderlightfilm.com & onedayitoogofly.com
Facebook: @brieftenderlightfilm
Instagram: @brieftenderlightfilm
Twitter: @btenderlightdoc
Tiktok: @brieftenderlightfilm
Hashtags: #BriefTenderLight #OneDayITooGoFly
About ITVS:
Independent Television Service® brings independently-produced, high-quality public broadcast and new media programs to local, national, and international audiences. The independent producers who create ITVS programs take creative risks, tackle complex issues, and express points of view seldom explored in the mass media. ITVS programs enrich the cultural landscape with the voices and visions of underrepresented communities, and reflect the interests and concerns of a diverse society.
About POV:
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, American Promise, Minding The Gap and Not Going Quietly, and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.
POV films and projects have won 47 Emmy® Awards, 27 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.
About DCTV and Firehouse: DCTV's Cinema for Documentary Film:
Founded in 1972, DCTV has grown into one of the leading documentary production and film education centers in the country. A community of and for documentary filmmakers, DCTV is a unique space where screenings, discussions, youth media, continuing education programs and filmmaking resources exist side by side with award-winning productions. In September 2022, DCTV opened a documentary cinema where filmmakers and film lovers can come together in appreciation of nonfiction film. Housed in DCTV's beloved landmarked building in Chinatown, New York City, Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film features first run, curated, repertory, masterclasses, family programs and more. Our 67 fixed-seat theater (with wheelchair spaces and companion seating) is ADA accessible, boasting 4K projection, 7.1 surround sound, interactive features to connect audiences worldwide, with concessions and an adjoining event space. Rentals available. Learn more: https://www.dctvny.org/s/firehousecinema
About JxJ: DC Jewish Film & Music:
Presented by the Edlavitch DCJCC, JxJ encompasses the Washington Jewish Film and Music Festivals, alongside a year-round film and music program. JxJ’s year-round program consists of advance and sneak peek screenings, limited theatrical runs and post-screenings conversations that take place at a state-of-the-art concert and cinema venue in the Edlavitch DCJCC on 16th and Q Streets. The annual JxJ Festival (May 9-19, 2024) is presented on stages and screens throughout DC, Virginia, and Maryland. Learn more: https://www.jxjdc.org/
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