This Documentary Captures the African Student Experience in the U.S.

It took Arthur Musah eight years to make Brief Tender Light. The documentary offers a nuanced look into the lives of four young Africans who get accepted to study at MIT and the changes their lives undergo as they interact with issues of race, self-worth, identity, idealism and ambition. Like the four young people who come from Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, Musah left his hometown in Ghana in 2000 to study electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. After graduation, he worked as an engineer for four years before moving on to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where he enrolled in a graduate film production program. It was during this program that he began filming.

Striking and deeply affecting, with scenes that seamlessly alternate between the students in America and their lives back home, Brief Tender Light, thrusts us into a world of young people who bear the weight of generations on their shoulders. Their stories mirror the challenges that come with the immigrant experience, providing a relatable look into what it means to be young and ambitious, but severely disadvantaged.

Musah does a stellar job of showing the weights and burdens each student carries even while working to succeed in a tough academic environment. Some of them are stand-in parents for their families, working jobs while at school to send money back home; while another is expected to help reconstruct the legacy of post-genocide in Rwanda. And even though some of the students are moderately privileged, they all still have people expecting so much from them. Throughout the film, Musah’s personal story occasionally slips into the narrative, creating a sense of kinship between the subjects and the person behind the camera.

Below Musah discusses the work behind making Brief Tender Light, filming over many years, his artistic process and what he has his eyes set on next.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OkayAfrica: When did you know you were going to make this film?

Arthur Musah: I was talking to my host family who MIT paired me up with when I was a student and I told them I was looking for documentary ideas. They said it would be interesting to make a film about the international student's experience, and that was the moment where their suggestion connected with a lot of the questions that I was interested in exploring and I was thinking about on my own but also with other Africans that I had shared this international journey with. Questions of how our time away impacts home countries, how that impacts the U.S., and how things may have been different if we had chosen to go to college elsewhere.

Why did filming take eight years?

So the participants and the film stars started college at MIT in 2011 and then they graduated in 2015. So that was the bulk of the filming that was done in the college years, but there was also filming in their home countries whenever they visited. While still looking for funding for post-production, I continued filming, catching up with them on camera after they graduated and so the last time I filmed with any one of them was in 2018.

What was the most memorable part of creating this documentary?

First, I made some great friends through the process; my crew and also the participants. The participants and I just really had to become friends to make this film because it was very collaborative. Also growing up in Ghana, I never visited any other African country other than Burkina Faso and this film and the participants and their families allowed me a chance to see different parts of the continent and learn about different countries and cultures.

The film balances matters of class amongst the students in a way that makes the story and their motivations dynamic; how did you approach that portrayal?

The class thing was important to pay attention to because it dictates what opportunities you have, what pressures you're not subject to and things like that. So it was important to then hone in on and film scenes that would illustrate the particular pressures or the particular factors that apply pressure on them. I thought it was very fortunate that we ended up with four participants who represented a diverse spectrum of classes and an economic background on the continent so that we could represent a more robust view of Africa.

Race and identity are important bits in this story, what perspective were you trying to share here?

The film is structured in a way that mirrors how African internationals and maybe other internationals experience college in America. In the first half of the film, there is this idealistic mission. So we're here to get the knowledge and then go back and make a difference right? But then racism is in the air in America, but it's an inconvenience that you tolerate because you're just here for four years so you think you don't have to wrestle with it on an intense basis. But in the second half of the film, it dawns on everybody that their time in America is going to have to be longer for multiple reasons, whether it's starting families, or whether in my case, it's safer for me as a gay man to live here.

What themes are you looking to explore in your work going forward?

A lot of what I'm exploring and writing right now sort of ties into this question of home and how a lot of struggles against oppression are interconnected.

Brief Tender Light is available in the U.S. on PBS free through April 14, 2024, after which it'll be available only to PBS Passport members. The film is also currently available for educational licensing in North America through Collective Eye Films.