Reflections

Legacy

35mm, 90 min., 1999 (RP)

In 1994, Tod Lending was conducting an interview for the PBS documentary No Time to Be a Child in the blown-out Henry Horner housing projects of Chicago. While Lending was speaking with welfare grandmother Dorothy Jackson, her 14-year-old grandson, Terrell "Bam" Collins -- a straight-A student and the family's hope to rise above their sad circumstance -- was shot and killed two blocks from his home. After completing the PBS series, Lending decided to stick by the Collins family and keep filming. What he has created is not just a stunning testimony to the devastation that violence and poverty wrought on an African-American family. The film is, more importantly, proof of the power of hope and determination for us all. Lending's eight camera operators followed the family's ups and downs for five years. This gorgeously shot footage is combined with Lending's breathtaking black-and-white still photography and a gentle, yet poignant, keyboard soundtrack that help convey the quiet dignity of one family's struggle. The most effective element that ties this family's many stories into a cohesive narrative, however, is the focused maturity of narrator Nickcole Collins, Jackson's teenage granddaughter. In many ways, this three-generational saga is Nickcole's. After her cousin Terrell's death, it is clear that Nickcole suddenly became wise beyond her years and picked up the standard to encourage her family to transcend their lives. Legacy is one of those festival nuggets that, despite its lack of flash and dazzle, is a true gem.