Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz Become Executive Producers of ‘Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story’
Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz Join Documentary on Kwame Brathwaite
Alicia Keys, a seventeen-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, along with Grammy-winning producer Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, has been named as Executive Producers for the documentary Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story. This project is a collaboration among Wayfarer Studios, Misfits Entertainment, and Mediawan.
The announcement follows the documentary’s sold-out premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, where it secured the Audience Award for Best British Discovery. The film later made its U.S. debut at the DOC NYC and also won the Best Documentary Feature award at the 34th Annual Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Directed by Yemi Bamiro, Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story chronicles the life of Kwame Brathwaite, a pivotal figure in the "Black Is Beautiful" movement that reshaped visual culture and Black identity. Brathwaite’s work began in Harlem in the 1950s and continued until his death in 2023. Over his lifetime, he captured over half a million photographs, including striking portraits of everyday people and notable icons such as Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali, Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone, and the Jackson Five.
Brathwaite’s photography documented significant cultural moments across fashion, activism, music, and art throughout a career that spanned more than six decades.
Joining Keys and Dean as Executive Producers are Wayfarer Studios’ CEO Jamey Heath and Misfits Entertainment’s Andee Ryder, along with Robin Bronk from The Creative Coalition, and Kwame S. Brathwaite and Robynn Brathwaite representing The Kwame Brathwaite Archive. The film’s production team includes Andrew Calof for Wayfarer Studios, Joanna Boateng, Ian Bonhôte, and Lizzie Gillett for Misfits, Mediawan Rights, and Entourage Media.
UTA is handling sales for the film in the United States and Canada, while Mediawan Rights represents it for international markets.
