A MOST BEAUTIFUL THING, narrated by Academy Award-winning artist, Common, and executive produced by NBA stars Grant Hill and Dwyane Wade, along with Grammy-winning producer 9th Wonder. This new film from award-winning filmmaker, Mary Mazzio, chronicles the first African American high school rowing team from the West Side of Chicago, all coming together from different neighborhoods and rival gangs to row in the same boat.

A MOST BEAUTIFUL THING explores not only the safety these young men found on the water (where, as the captain reflected, “we were in a place where we could not hear the sound of sirens”), 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. These young men came together, after 20 years out of the boat, to race this past summer, not only to celebrate the team’s founding, but the fact that they are still alive.  This is their story.

50% of film screening profits from A MOST BEAUTIFUL THING will be donated to support inclusion efforts within the sport of rowing as well as trauma research.