A Most Beautiful Thing

In A Most Beautiful Thing, award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio puts the spotlight on the country’s very first African American high school rowing team, hailing from Manley High School on the West Side of Chicago.

The film “explores not only the safety these young men found on the water… but the trauma of violence and cyclical poverty, examining how these young men were able to support each other in reimagining a different future for themselves, and how rowing and the water provided the backdrop for that opportunity.”

We were honored to welcome the members of that rowing team, along with Mazzio and other special guests, to a screening of the film at our headquarters, co-hosted with RIAA.

At last night’s event, co-hosted with RIAA, Georgetown University Professor Anthony Cook also led a live discussion delving into these themes with Mazzio and Manley HS rowing team member Arshay Cooper, alongside mental health expert Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Illinois).

“We have seen the same thing that soldiers have seen, but before the age of 13,” Cooper noted. “And it triggered a lot of pain in us. And there was no opportunity to talk about that… but the moment we got on the water is when the conversation started.”

“We have seen the same thing that soldiers have seen, but before the age of 13.” — @arshaycooper#AMostBeautifulThing, the @marymazzio film on America’s first Black HS rowing team, will open July 17 in select theaters.

An excerpt from the discussion at our February screening: pic.twitter.com/nwLrSMACOK

— Motion Picture Association (@motionpictures) June 24, 2020

Also speaking at the event:

• Rick Lane, Executive Producer, A Most Beautiful Thing
• Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)
• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois)
• K. Kim Atterbury, Senior Vice President of Media Relations, RIAA
• Urmila Venugopalan, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Global Operations, MPA

The documentary — narrated by Academy Award/Grammy-winning artist Common, and executive produced by NBA stars Grant Hill and Dwyane Wade along with Grammy-winning producer 9th Wonder — is scheduled to be released July 17 in select theaters.

Learn more about A Most Beautiful Thing here.

Featured photo: Manley High School rowing team members attend a screening of the documentary film “A Most Beautiful Thing” at the Motion Picture Association headquarters in Washington, D.C., February 26, 2020. From left to right: Preston Grandberry, Malcolm Hawkins, Alvin Ross, Arshay Cooper, Ray “Pookie” Hawkins. (Photo credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar)