A music video written and directed by Andrew Hines was released for the song on June 19 , 2015 . West and Legend do not appear in the video . The video was shot entirely in monochrome and was filmed in Detroit in honor of Sean 's late grandmother , Mildred V. Leonard , who was one of the first black female captains of the U.S. Army . The video was shot in one day , using a modified monochrome RED Dragon camera . The video won MTV Video Music Award for Best Video with a Message at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards . Various publications picked up the story about Hines not being invited officially by MTV due to their policy of supplying only the Best Director category with tickets
2015 MTV Video Music Awards
2015 MTV Video Music Awards
One Man Can Change the World