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Following Harry is an intimate documentary chronicling the final twelve years of legendary artist and activist Harry Belafonte’s life, highlighting his commitment to social justice and inspiring future generations to continue the work.
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Directed by Susanne Rostock, the film captures Belafonte’s activism during pivotal moments including the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death, the Ferguson protests, and the Women’s March, while also offering a rare glimpse into his private conversations with artists and activists. VENTS recently spoke with Susanne Rostock about the origins of the documentary, Harry Belafonte’s lasting legacy, and the challenges of bringing such an important story to the screen.Followig Harry will be released Nationwide in the US on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango and all other major VOD platforms on October 13.
[NOTE: This interview has been slightly edited for length, but the spirit of the conversation has not been fudamentally altered.]
Following Harry’s Journey
VENTS: So what first inspired you to do a documentary on Harry Belafonte?
Susanne Rostock: Well, I had made a film about Harry Belafonte before called Sing Your Song. And I was asked to do that by Harry. It covered Harry’s life from the beginning to 2009.
At the end of that film, Harry looks out at the world and says, “What do you do now?” He was so upset about what was going on. The first film was about Harry as an artist and activist, and the activist part of his life was not as well known. He wasn’t famous for that, although he played such a huge role in everything that happened in the civil rights movement. He stayed under the radar. He was very close with Martin Luther King and so on.
After that statement, Harry turned to me and said, “I’m moving into a new office. Would you like to join me?” He invited me to share an office with him. That put me in a position to observe one of the great humans in the universe. I decided to start filming the conversations he was having with young people and celebrities about what to do with the world.
Then Trayvon Martin was murdered, and Harry hit the ground running. I saw that it was important to document what was going on because the world was changing so rapidly. Harry was playing such a role in how to heal and make sense out of all the craziness and fear.
It became very natural for me to want to make a film. I wanted to make sure Harry’s voice continued because there are so few people in the universe who had that kind of wisdom and that deep caring about humanity. I wanted to preserve that.
I immediately thought, “I’m going to follow Harry.” Then I thought, Following Harry. It also had the double meaning of what follows after Harry. How do we keep Harry’s voice going? All these young people who are being inspired by him — where are they going? What’s following after Harry?
VENTS: So did any philosophy influence the way that you structured the documentary?
Susanne Rostock: In a way it did, because I wanted it to have a bit of a journal feel to it — an intimate feeling where you’re not only a fly on the wall, you’re being invited to the table as the story unfolds.
That’s really what I wanted the viewer to feel — that they were witnessing history firsthand. I wanted it to have a very in-the-moment feel, not just talking heads telling you what was going on.
VENTS: In the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death, you mentioned there were the Ferguson protests and the Women’s March. How did you decide which historical events were necessary to include in telling Harry’s story?
Susanne Rostock: They became necessary in the way Harry was participating in them. As soon as Mike Brown was murdered, I was invited down to Ferguson to film because some of the activists who went down to help organize Ferguson were in the Trayvon Martin footage. I followed them down, and then Harry was calling Ferguson, and Ferguson was calling Harry.
That became the obvious story because Harry was so actively involved. I went down to Ferguson a few times to film. You saw the activists come up to meet with Harry as well as being on the phone.
The Women’s March was created in our office. Carmen Perez, one of the leaders of the Women’s March, was also invited to share the office. She was head of the Gathering for Justice, an organization Harry had founded. Our office became home base for the Women’s March, and I was always there.
The story was telling me what it should be more than I was telling it. As Harry became involved with school shootings, prison reform, Sing Sing, art and activism, and engaging young people through the arts, everything came to me. I didn’t have to seek it out. There’s a lot more story, but you’re never going to capture everything.
Showing the Human Side of Activism
VENTS: The documentary does a great job of depicting the activists as actual human beings, not just some vague concept or manipulated force. You get to see why they’re interested in doing what they’re doing.
Susanne Rostock: Great. That’s the intention, really — to show the truth. It’s not dogma. These are real people and real passionate people.
Harry is so pure of soul and heart and so passionate about what he does. So are all these young people and artists coming in. They just feel so strongly. It’s important to show them as real people so you can relate to them.
VENTS: There’s a trope, especially from right-wingers, that these people are just bused in, or that George Soros is pulling the strings behind everything. But these are people who are animated by personal stories or major events, and that’s why they get involved.
Susanne Rostock: Oh, I’m so glad that comes through. It’s indisputable. You’re actually witnessing it.
VENTS: Was there a particular conversation or moment that changed your perspective on Harry Belafonte?
Susanne Rostock: We had eight gazillion conversations, and I witnessed so much. It wasn’t so much that it changed my perspective, but what surprised me was how vulnerable he felt and how much he believed he hadn’t done enough.
When you look at everything he’d devoted his life and money to — he lived very modestly and gave his all to the betterment of humanity — he was all in. Yet he still felt, “How can it be? There’s so much more to be done. I haven’t done enough.”
That’s why I start the film with his vulnerability.
Art, Responsibility, and Documentary Challenges
VENTS: There are people who believe entertainment and politics should be separate — that artists should “shut up and dribble.” What would you say to those people?
Susanne Rostock: Harry always felt, “Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.”
Artists have the platform and the means to express what’s going on, point out what’s happening, and motivate people to stand up. It’s a responsibility you take on when you earn that much from the public. What’s fueling you and making you rich and famous comes from the people, so you owe them something. You owe them something as a human being.
I think that’s the real answer.
VENTS: That’s also just documenting reality, right? So what were some of the biggest creative and logistical hurdles when it came to this documentary?
Susanne Rostock: One of the biggest hurdles is trust. I had Harry’s trust, but getting the trust of other people was more difficult.
I’m a white woman making a film about one of the great Black leaders. Is that right? Should I be doing that? Do I have the right to tell that story? Harry invited me in, so that’s my answer, but it’s still a sensitive issue and continues to be one.
Another challenge was raising money because it’s a controversial film. It’s an anti-Trump film, and people are afraid to support things that might affect their own livelihoods.
There was also footage I wanted to film but wasn’t allowed to. Some meetings in Ferguson and elsewhere were incredibly valuable because they showed disagreements, concerns, and how conflicts were resolved. By the time a documentary comes out, those moments are already history, but people are understandably protective. I respect that.
ou know, in the Women’s March, I was able to show some of the controversy or some of the questioning about how you go about things.
Harry Belafonte’s Musical Legacy
VENTS: When it comes to Harry Belafonte’s musical side, what surprised you most?
Susanne Rostock: I can’t really say anything surprised me musically because I assumed he would have wide-ranging musical interests. He sang music from so many cultures and traditions and had such a deep appreciation for music.
What did surprise me during Sing Your Song was learning how important “Scarlet Ribbons” was to him. He said it was one of the most important songs he ever sang because it was simply a father singing to his child. As one of the few Black performers on The Ed Sullivan Show, audiences saw him as a father first. It completely eliminated the racial stigma.
He said that’s the power of what you choose to perform. That really made a light switch go on for me.
VENTS: What do you think Harry would think about some of today’s newer issues, like artificial intelligence?
Susanne Rostock: It’s hard for me to say what Harry would think because he was such a broad and deep thinker. But I know what he would do.
He would call both sides into his office. He believed in bringing people together to talk. If it wasn’t in his office, it would be in a church or a town hall. “Let’s bring both sides in.”
He never claimed to be an expert on everything. He believed we learn from each other. Get people talking — not shouting — but talking. Get the right people in the room with a good audience, and something happens.
Looking Ahead
VENTS: Are you working on another documentary?
Susanne Rostock: I’ve always made documentaries, so yes. I’m not making another Harry documentary, but I am working on a film I started a long time ago with Harry’s daughter, Gina Belafonte, called Another Night in the Free World.
I actually started it at the same time I was making Following Harry. Harry appears in that film as well, and some of the footage from Following Harry was originally intended for it and will still appear in a different way.
The film follows three young women activists and explores what it means to be a woman activist — the sacrifices, the passion, and what brought them to this work. I’ve worked on so many films involving archival footage and history, and there’s so little captured about women. I felt strongly that it stops here and starts here —that I would begin documenting those stories.
