Brief and Tender Light: Screening & Conversation with Director Arthur Musah

Join OISS for a special screening of Brief and Tender Light (2023), an intimate documentary that follows four African students — from Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe — through nearly a decade at MIT as they work to turn their youthful ambitions into lasting change back home. The film captures the emotional weight of building a life between two worlds: the pressure of big dreams, the pull of family and homeland, and the quiet ways ambition shifts as reality sets in.

We're hosting this screening at a moment when the international student journey feels more uncertain than it has in years. This film is a chance to sit with the resilience, sacrifice, and hope that define that journey — and to remember that its brightest moments, however brief, leave something lasting behind.

Following the film, we're honored to welcome director Arthur Musah for a conversation about the making of the film and his own migration story — born in his mother's native Ukraine, raised in his father's native Ghana, and arriving in the U.S. at 19. Arthur brings a rare, personal understanding to the questions this film raises, and we invite you to bring yours.

The conversation will be moderated by two of Yale's own international students. 

Elizabeth Kenda is a junior at Yale studying Biomedical Engineering with a certificate in Global Health Studies. Originally from Kenya, she works at the Office of International Students and Scholars and the Office of Career Strategies, tutors Swahili at the Center for Language Studies, and has helped lead Yale Model African Union and the Yale Africa Innovation Symposium. She is also Operations Manager at Assistive Math, an ed-tech startup serving students in Kenya, and has worked on global health projects at the Shamiri Institute in Nairobi and the Global Health Ethics Program at the Yale Institute for Global Health. She continues to seek opportunities to advance her knowledge and share her experience in conversation with people from different backgrounds. 

Thabile Moyo is a junior at Yale in a pre-med track studying Biomedical Engineering. Originally from Zimbabwe, Thabilie has been very involved at OISS, serving as one of our OIS counselors and working at the OISS front desk. 

Please register to attend and open to the Yale and New Haven community. 

Generously cosponsored by: Office of International Students and Scholars, Yale Office for Postdoctoral Affairs, Yale Young Global Scholars, and Yale Young African Scholars.