Premieres Monday, Jan. 15, 2024 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS App
Multi Emmy®, Peabody and Academy Award®-winning series, POV, goes inside MIT, America’s premier technological university, to reveal opportunities and obstacles four Black African students face as they experience American culture and its embedded racism in "Brief Tender Light".
Directed and produced by Arthur Musah, an MIT alumnus, the moving documentary marks his feature film debut. Brook Sitgraves Turner is the co-producer. The film makes its national broadcast premiere on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.
In “Brief Tender Light,” Musah captures students as they embark on their MIT education with individual ambitions: Sante to engineer infrastructure in Tanzania; Philip to secure a better life for family in Nigeria; Billy to contribute to post-genocide reconstruction in Rwanda; and Fidelis to advance the wellbeing of his community 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 if they want to succeed.
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.
Filmmaker Quote:
“At its core, 'Brief Tender Light' is about whether youthful idealism can survive the process of growing up,” said Director Arthur 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.”
Film Awards:
“Brief Tender Light” made its world premiere at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival 2023 where it won the “Best First Time Filmmaker Jury Award.” At the 2023 Urbanworld Film Festival, it won the “Jury Prize, Best Documentary Feature,” and the “Audience Award, Best Feature Film.” The documentary took home “Best Documentary Feature” at the Tacoma Film Festival 2023 and the “Youth Vision Award” at the United Nations Association Film Festival 2023.
Watch On Your Schedule:
“Brief Tender Light” will be available for streaming concurrently 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.
The film will be available through April 14, 2024, before it becomes available with KPBS Passport only, a member benefit that unlocks exclusive shows and extra content on the PBS App.
In addition to standard closed captioning for all films, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.
Credits:
A co-production of One Day I Too Go Fly Inc., American Documentary | POV, and 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.
"With about a million international students studying in the USA every year, Arthur Musah's ‘Brief Tender Light’ is extremely relevant," said Chris White, executive producer, POV. “His lens offers a fascinating perspective of these student’s trying to reach their potential while navigating two worlds, oceans apart. Their struggles and reflections illuminate much about our own country, and spotlight advantages Americans might take for granted."
