Brief Tender Light
A film by Arthur Musah
“One of the finest films I’ve seen in years in any genre. And for those of us who had to travel intergalactic distances to attend universities, this film is a deeply moving mirror in which we are given the opportunity to see ourselves at last.” — Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz
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, DP: Arthur Musah
Co-Producer: Brook Sitgraves Turner
Supervising Producer: Michael Kinomoto
Featuring: Philip Abel Adama, Fidelis Chimombe, Billy Ndengeyingoma, Sante Nyambo
Sales & Bookings
- CINEPHIL – International Sales – Contact HERE.
- COLLECTIVE EYE FILMS – Educational Sales – Contact HERE.
- BOOK Filmmaker Arthur Musah for a Talk HERE.
Streaming
- USA – PBS / POV Season 36 – US Nationwide – Broadcast Premiere on MLK Day, Mon, Jan 15, 2024 – Details HERE.
- CANADA – TVO – Ontario, CANADA – Broadcast & Streaming – Details HERE.
- SWITZERLAND – RTS1 – Broadcast & Streaming – Details HERE.
Upcoming Screenings
- LAS CRUCES, NM – Las Cruces International Film Festival – Sun, Apr 13, 2025 @ 2pm
- EVANSTON, IL – Northwestern University – Tue, Apr 15, 2025 @ 5pm
Past Screenings
🏆 WINNER, BEST FIRST TIME FILMMAKER
Newburyport Documentary Film Festival 2023 – WORLD PREMIERE
🏆 WINNER, BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
Tacoma Film Festival 2023 – WEST COAST PREMIERE
🏆 WINNER, JURY PRIZE, BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
🏆 WINNER, AUDIENCE AWARD, BEST FEATURE
Urbanworld Film Festival 2023 – NEW YORK PREMIERE
🏆 WINNER, UNAFF YOUTH VISION AWARD
United Nations Association Film Festival 2023
🏆 WINNER, AUDIENCE CHOICE/BEST OF FEST AWARD
🏆 WINNER, AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
East Lansing Film Festival 2023
🏆 WINNER, BEST FIRST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Pan African Film Festival 2024
🏆 WINNER, BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Roxbury International Film Festival 2024
Newport Beach Film Festival 2023 [Newport Beach, CA, USA] • Arlington International Film Festival 2023 [Lexington, MA, USA] • NHDocs: The New Haven Documentary Film Festival 2023 [New Haven, CT, USA] • Louisville International Festival of Film 2023 [Louisville, KY, USA] • Ojai Film Festival 2023 [Ojai, CA, USA] • Alexandria Film Festival 2023 [Alexandria, VA, USA] • St. Louis International Film Festival 2023 [St. Louis, MI, USA] • Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film [New York, NY, USA] • Cafritz Hall, Edlavitch DCJCC [Washington, DC, USA] • USC School of Cinematic Arts [Los Angeles, CA, USA] • Frozen River Film Festival 2024 [Winona, MN, USA] • InScience Film Festival 2024 [Nijmegen, The Netherlands] • MIT Museum [Cambridge, MA, USA] • The Forum on Education Abroad’s Annual Conference [Boston, MA, USA] • Columbia University, International Students Discuss: Brief Tender Light [New York, NY, USA] • Cambridge Africa Conference [Cambridge, UK] • NAFSA 2024 Annual Conference & Expo [New Orleans, LA, USA] • Woods Hole Film Festival 2024 [Woods Hole, MA, USA] • HALI Indaba 2024 – [RWANDA] • Visioni dal Mondo Festival 2024 [Milan, ITALY] • The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) [Trieste, ITALY] • Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival 2024 [Cleveland, OH, USA] • University of Michigan [Ann Arbor, MI, USA] • Wayne State University [Detroit, MI, USA] • Michigan State University [East Lansing, MI, USA] • Silicon Valley African Film Festival 2024 [San Jose, CA, USA] • University of Virginia [Charlottesville, VA, USA] • Mashariki African Film Festival 2024 [Kigali, RWANDA] • Regal LA Live Cinema [Los Angeles, CA, USA] • University of Connecticut [Storrs, CT , USA] • NC State University [Raleigh, NC, USA] • Saint Paul College [St. Paul, MN, USA] • Kenyon College [Gambier, OH, USA] • Kitale Film Week 2025 [Kitale, KENYA] • Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University [Boston, MA, USA] • Maysles Documentary Cinema [Harlem, NY, USA]
Press
- The Kenyon Collegian, 2/6/2025: “Brief Tender Light” illuminates unseen college experiences
- Cape Code Wave, 7/30/2024: Fest doc warm, inspiring look at African MIT students – Play it again, Tim
- Educational Media Reviews Online, 7/16/2024: Brief Tender Light Reviewed by Stephanie A. Diaz
- BBC Focus on Africa 5/28/2024
- OkayAfrica, 3/28/2024: This Documentary Captures the African Student Experience in the U.S.
- A55 Podcast, 3/15/2024: Shining a ‘Brief Tender Light’ on African Stories
- Africa Is A Country, 3/13/2024: Being young and African in elite America
- Daily Trojan, 2/9/2024: African stories spotlighted in documentary
- StoryWorlds with Junot Díaz, 1/22/2024: Coro Bulletin + Office Hours
- GBH Under The Radar, 1/12/2024: New documentary features African students at MIT and their journey far from home
- Making Media Now Podcast, 1/12/2024: Arthur Musah Shines a “Brief Tender Light” on the International Student Experience at MIT
- The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/10/2024: Latitudes: A new film shines a light on the experiences of international students from Africa
- The World Wise Podcast, 1/7/2024: 43. Four African Students, MIT, and dreams of a Made-in-America degree: Arthur Musah on his new film, Brief Tender Light
- Vague Visages, 1/5/2024: Review: Arthur Musah’s ‘Brief Tender Light’
- American Documentary, 11/14/2023: ‘POV’ Introduces Four African Students At MIT Striving to Become Agents of Change in Brief Tender Light
- Telling Tall Stories Podcast, 11/01/2023: “Brief Tender Light” by Arthur Musah
- WBUR, 10/16/2023: African-born students shine as agents of change in documentary ‘Brief Tender Light’
- Tacoma Ledger, 10/16/2023: Can youthful idealism survive college in a far-away land? An interview with filmmaker Arthur Musah
- Variety, 10/10/2023: Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films Select Eight Films Highlighting Diversity in Science to Receive Grants
- Ongolo, 9/25/2023: Brief Tender Light film on African students at MIT
- Bay State Banner, 9/20/2023: ‘Brief Tender Light’ Documents the stories of African MIT students
- WBUR, 9/15/2023: 8 Greater Boston film festivals to check out this fall
- The Boston Globe, 9/13/2023: Arthur Musah’s documentary ‘Brief Tender Light’ follows four African students’ journeys at MIT
- Deadline, 5/04/2023: PBS Series ‘POV’ Reveals Film Lineup For 36th Season, Packed With Oscar Contenders, Award Winners
- Deadline, 6/14/2022: Ten Nonfiction Projects From First-Time Filmmakers Announced For Gotham Documentary Feature Lab
- Realscreen, 5/13/2022: Hot Docs ‘22: Hot Docs Forum report, part two
- Citi Newsroom, 5/01/2022: Brief Tender Light: A Ghanaian’s documentary of 10yr life of 4 African emigrants at MIT
- Realscreen, 3/16/2022: Hot Docs unveils 2022 Forum line-up
- Not Your African Cliche, 8/15/2017: NYAC S3 E1: Identity and Filmmaking (with Arthur Musah)
- Ventures Africa, 8/09/2017: One Day I Too Go Fly: Ghanaian Filmmaker Is Creating A New Cinematic Narrative About Africa And Africans
- She Leads Africa, 7/30/2017: Sante Nyambo: Education Is The Most Important Gift You Can Give Yourself
- This Is Africa, 7/12/2017: Ghanaian filmmaker Arthur Musah launches One Day I Too Go Fly
- True Africa, 10/29/2015: Arthur Musah: The MIT Engineer Turned Documentary Maker
- African Takeover, 6/07/2015: Arthur Musah: Engineering Education, Film School, and an African New Wave
- The Tech, 12/04/2012: Interview: From Africa to MIT
- Slice of MIT, 11/26/2012: Alum’s Documentary Captures Lives of African MIT Students—and Reveals Modern Africa
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
