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Rest in Power, Beautiful transformed the grief of George Floyd’s murder into a global call for justice—helping ignite the largest protest movement in human history.
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In the days following the murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter partnered with HUMAN to create Rest in Power, Beautiful—a short film that distilled collective sorrow, rage, and hope into a singular cinematic moment. Using real tweets, powerful voiceovers, and stark imagery of victims of police violence, the film became a viral catalyst for change. It reached over 20 million viewers within 48 hours and helped propel BLM’s social following from 300,000 to 4.5 million. Shared by influential cultural figures and viewed around the world, the film played a central role in galvanizing what became the largest protest movement in human history, with tens of millions taking to the streets across the U.S. and around the globe. Through this project, HUMAN demonstrated the profound impact of emotionally-driven storytelling in moments of global reckoning.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, Black Lives Matter turned to HUMAN to create a piece of media that could transform global grief into unified action. The result was Rest in Power, Beautiful—a haunting short film that captured the sorrow, rage, and solidarity of a world in mourning. Within 48 hours of release, the film had amassed over 20 million views on Instagram and helped propel BLM’s following from 300,000 to 4.5 million.
The task was clear yet urgent: channel the emotional gravity of George Floyd’s death into a cinematic work that could speak across borders and awaken a global audience to the systemic realities of anti-Black violence.
HUMAN sought to build a universal language of grief, resistance, and resolve. The film was crafted as an elegy and a call to action—unfolding not as a campaign, but as a collective prayer and protest.
Rest in Power, Beautiful became one of the defining pieces of media in what would become the largest protest movement in human history. An estimated 15–26 million people marched in the United States alone. Internationally, the ripple was felt in cities around the world—200,000 people rallied in New Zealand; tens of thousands marched in London, Berlin, Paris, São Paulo, and Toronto.
The film helped focus global attention not only on the singular injustice of George Floyd’s murder, but on the centuries of oppression it symbolized. It was not a conclusion, but an ignition.
This collaboration exemplifies HUMAN’s belief in storytelling as a force for collective transformation. Rest in Power, Beautiful lives on as a requiem, a rallying cry, and a reminder: when we grieve together, we rise together.
