Directed by filmmaker Susanne Rostock, Following Harry, the documentary portrait of Harry Belafonte made its World Premiere to a packed house at the 2024 Tribeca Festival.
Following the premiere, American political activist, scholar, and author, Angela Davis presented Tribeca Festival’s Harry Belafonte Voices For Social Justice Award to Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams, Aloe Blacc, aja monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz and Sean Pica presented Tribeca Festival’s fourth annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award to Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams, Aloe Blacc, aja monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz and Sean Pica. Named after the iconic entertainer, actor, and civil rights leader, the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award recognizes individuals who have used storytelling and the arts to enact change in their communities.
Recipients of Tribeca Festival’s fourth annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award include:
Rosario Dawson is an “Actrivist,” designer and producer who has activated across a variety of issues from youth homelessness to domestic violence.
Jesse Williams is an actor, producer, director, and activist who sits on the Boards of both The Advancement Project and Sankofa.org.
Aloe Blacc is Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, Aloe Blacc pledged early in his career to use his music for positive social transformation.
aja monet is a Grammy-nominated Surrealist Blues Poet and musician with a history of participating in and assembling movements and was a featured speaker at the Women’s March.
Matt Post is a student at Yale Law School and leader in the gun safety movement. He spent four years working for gun violence prevention organization March For Our Lives, organized by the Parkland survivors.
Carmen Perez-Jordan is President & CEO of The Gathering for Justice, founded by Harry Belafonte. She is also the co-founder of Justice League NYC and Justice League CA where she spearheaded campaigns such as Free Meek Mill and Take a Knee with Colin Kaepernick.
Rodrigo “RodStarz” Venegas is 1/2 of the Hip Hop group Rebel Diaz, uses music as an organizing tool and vehicle to spread knowledge about injustice.
Sean Pica is the Executive Director of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, a non-profit organization that provides college education and reentry support to currently and formerly incarcerated people.
Following Harry begins with Harry Belafonte at the age of 84, embarking on a deeply personal journey, disrupting injustice over the next ten years by passionately encouraging a diverse group of entertainers and activists to overcome soaring national unrest and anger, by believing that love has the power to redirect oppression into oblivion. The story unfolds like a poem punctuated by a collection of provocative and deeply personal ruminations from Belafonte.
Featuring poignant moments with Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams, Aloe Blacc, aja monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz, Sean Pica, Angela Davis, Phillip Agnew, Jamie Foxx, Chuck D, Talib Kweli, among others, the film encourages today’s youth to use their strength to meet complex social issues with love, compassion, and a fierce determination to stand for justice.
Director Susanne Rostock stated, “With his uniquely postmodern twist on history and his commitment to building a new world, it was exhilarating to witness Harry go beyond accepting that the past is doomed to be repeated by those who do not understand it, to ask: If we cannot position ourselves to see and translate history through our own present day experience, then how can we envision the future that we are rushing so quickly to embrace?”
Watch a sneak peak clip from Following Harry featuring Harry Belafonte & Aja Monet.