Following Harry

CULTURETECHLENS · “Culture, Clearly Seen.” · Black Cultural Intelligence

Research record

Following Harry · Staged record CTL-W-1234 · Entity Depth Program · 630 words · Evidence grade: VERIFIED (canonical master, carried unchanged) · Researched 2026-10-25

Following Harry is a documentary feature about the last decade of Harry Belafonte's life, and the Tribeca Festival archive page that verifies this record fixes its production facts: directed by Susanne Rostock, it world-premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival in New York City, runs ninety-five minutes, and was produced in the United States in English. Rostock came to the subject as Belafonte's longtime editor and collaborator — she had directed Sing Your Song, the earlier biographical documentary about him, which opened the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011, screened on HBO, was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and won the NAACP Image Award and the Gracie Award for Outstanding Director. Following Harry is her return to the same life, filmed from the other end of it.

The Tribeca synopsis states the film's span plainly: it follows Belafonte, then in his later eighties and beyond, deep into his nineties, on a journey that begins in Florida in the aftermath of the killing of Trayvon Martin, runs through the uprisings in Ferguson and the unrest around the death of Eric Garner, and ends in Ghana — while at his New York home he continues to mentor a new generation of artists and activists. The filmmakers had more than twelve years of intimate access; Belafonte chose Rostock to direct, and filming continued until his death in 2023 at the age of ninety-six. The featured participants listed for the film read as a cross-section of the movement culture he spent his last decade convening: Angela Davis, Aja Monet, Aloe Blacc, Chuck D, Gina Belafonte, Jamie Foxx, Jesse Williams, Kerry Kennedy, Rosario Dawson, and Talib Kweli, among others. Its credits name Frankie Nasso and Edward Zeng as producers alongside Rostock, cinematography by Martina Radwan, original score by Hahn Rowe, and editing by Rostock; Harry and Pamela Belafonte are credited as executive producers in the Tribeca record.

The film's festival life is part of its documented record. Its world premiere at Tribeca played, by trade-press accounts, to a packed house, and the festival's fourth annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award was presented at the premiere by Angela Davis to Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams, Aloe Blacc, Aja Monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz, and Sean Pica. The documentary went on to receive the Jury Award at the Sidewalk Film Festival, the Cinema & Social Justice Award at the BronzeLens Film Festival, and an award at the Cleveland International Film Festival's FilmSlam program, and in the autumn of 2026 it was released on transactional video-on-demand platforms nationwide — a release that described it as an intimate portrait combining never-before-seen footage with testimony from the cultural and political figures Belafonte influenced.

In the CultureTechLens graph the film carries two edges: an authorship edge to Susanne Rostock, and a documented-by relation from Harry Belafonte himself, the subject documenting the documentarian's subject — the graph's convention for a life recorded by a film. For a Black cultural archive, the record's significance needs no embroidery beyond its own credits: it is the closing film record of Belafonte's public life, made by his chosen collaborator across his final twelve years, and it fixes on screen the mentoring role — elder artist convening younger artists and organizers — that defined his last decade. CultureTechLens carries it as a work record, verified against the festival archive, with its premiere, its participants, and its awards stated as its sources give them. The film's own release presents it explicitly as the sequel to Sing Your Song: where the 2011 documentary documented Belafonte's life and career, Following Harry documents the work of his final decade, and the pairing — same director, same subject, filmed across the whole of his remaining public life — is the film's stated premise.

Sources for this record

• Following Harry — Festival Archive — Tribeca Festival
  Claims supported: Master verification source: Following Harry is a documentary feature film; world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival; runtime 95 minutes; directed by Susanne Rostock; subject Harry Belafonte; features Jesse Williams; synopsis from Trayvon Martin's killing through Ferguson to Ghana; more than 12 years of footage; Belafonte died in 2023 at age 96; producers Frankie Nasso, Edward Zeng and Susanne Rostock; cinematography Martina Radwan; music Hahn Rowe; executive producers include Harry and Pamela Belafonte.
• 'Following Harry' to Arrive on TVOD Platforms Nationwide — BroadwayWorld (TVOD release announcement)
  Claims supported: Transactional VOD release; featured participants Angela Davis, Aja Monet, Aloe Blacc, Chuck D, Gina Belafonte, Jamie Foxx, Jesse Williams, Kerry Kennedy, Rosario Dawson and Talib Kweli; Sing Your Song background (Sundance 2011 U.S. Documentary Competition, HBO, Academy Award shortlist, NAACP Image Award, Gracie Award for Outstanding Director); festival awards including Sidewalk Jury Award, BronzeLens Cinema & Social Justice Award, Cleveland FilmSlam Award.
• Following Harry Documentary Tribeca Fest — VIMooZ
  Claims supported: World premiere played to a packed house at the 2024 Tribeca Festival; Angela Davis presented the fourth annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the premiere to Dawson, Williams, Blacc, Aja Monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz and Sean Pica.

Citations

Published October 25, 2026, from the head-verified staged record in the Entity Depth Program (Batches 004–008). Source: CultureTechLens