Academy Award®-nominated LEGACY is the unflinching chronicle of one family’s triumphant journey out of poverty and despair. Touchingly narrated by Nickcole Collins, a teenage girl wise beyond her years, the film follows the Collins family over five years as they slowly pull themselves out of the haze of poverty, drug addiction, and violence that plagues their public housing project in Chicago. Stereotype-busting and open-minded, LEGACY paints the American Dream in honest colors to rousing effect.

“In LEGACY, award-winning filmmaker Tod Lending does that rarest of things — he gives voice to the voiceless. The result is a stirring, must-see film that is “inspirational” in the best sense of the term” (Variety).

This film also inspired the creation of national legislation entitled The Legacy Act, providing low-income housing for grand-parents raising grandchildren.

A “vivid, sobering portrait” that “packs considerable cumulative punch” (Variety), OMAR & PETE is a compelling and highly personal film that examines the social, economic, and personal barriers two ex-offenders face as they try to reintegrate into their communities and families. In and out of prison for more than 30 years, and never out longer than 6 months, Omar and Pete are determined to change their lives.

OMAR & PETE has been broadcasted throughout the US, Europe and Asia and received special selection festival screenings and awards. National Emmy-nominated Best Documentary, and Henry Hampton award winner.

Following Tresa Dunbar and Kerry Purcell (two highly dedicated public school principals) over the course of a school year, THE PRINCIPAL STORY paints a dramatic portrait of the challenges facing America’s public schools – and of the great difference a dedicated principal can make. As the film reveals, Purcell and Dunbar share an irrepressible determination to see that poverty doesn’t prevent their students from getting the education they deserve. And they do their jobs with a sense of mission and purpose that comes deep from within their hearts and souls.

Broadcasted nationally on PBS award-winning POV series, distributed by the State Department to 150 consulates across the world.

The Governor of Illinois granted filmmaker Tod Lending unprecedented access to a female juvenile prison in order to tell the story of AIMEE'S CROSSING. In this provocative, intimate, and emotionally charged portrait, Lending follows juvenile offender Aimee Myers for four years as she struggles to stay out of incarceration and overcome her addictions. Her distinctive voice, and the multiplicity of issues that her story embodies (mental health, abuse, addiction, family struggles, education, juvenile criminal justice), challenges the viewer to examine and question how the juvenile justice system can best serve young women.

Broadcasted nationally on PBS.

TIME TO SPEAK features young victims of domestic violence struggling to survive and overcome their experience of abuse and neglect. This powerful and intimate documentary follows their stories as they unfold in the pediatric trauma ward of a Chicago hospital; a medical intake center where psychological and physical exams are performed; and in a unique residential facility that uses peer pressure as an innovative approach for healing boys who now have become abusers themselves. This film reveals the impact of child abuse from a very emotional and psychological perspective.

Winner Casey medal for Meritorious Journalism, broadcasted nationally on PBS.

BREAKING TIES focuses on the intense lives of three teens that are breaking their families’ ties to poverty in the US. Nicole, 16 years old, lives in a poor section of Chicago. Her family has depended on welfare for 4 generations. Demetrio, 17 years old, is a migrant worker who has worked the crops between Florida and Michigan since he was a young child. Chris, 14 years old, was once middle class and living in a small town in the Sierra mountains of California. He’s now homeless, living on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and searching for a place he can call home. BREAKING TIES takes us inside the lives of these three teens, telling the story from their unique point of view while showing how poverty has molded their sense of the world and their future in it.

Winner Casey medal for Meritorious Journalism, broadcasted nationally on PBS.

GROWIN' UP NOT A CHILD enters the violent living conditions of urban America and exposes communal violence on a scale that we never thought was possible in the U.S. Filmed in Chicago, it follows the lives of children living in dangerous communities who are making decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. This film examines what support structures these children need in order to overcome their predicaments; what effects their surroundings have on their cognitive and emotional development; and how they make sense of the seemingly senseless brutality that they witness in their daily lives. The program is told from the point of view of youths. Their stories afford a rare and intimate, and ultimately powerful portrait that will challenge the viewer to reshape their thinking about what these children need in order to have healthy and productive lives.

National Emmy nominated Best Documentary Special, broadcasted nationally on PBS.

Rosevelt's America is a cinema verite profile of the struggles of a Liberian refugee to build a new life in America. After being tortured and narrowly escaping execution during Liberia's civil war, Rosevelt Henderson makes his way to America with three of his children but is forced to leave his pregnant wife behind. Ultimately, Rosevelt's America becomes an inspiring story of quiet determination and dignity under duress.

“An uplifiting portrait of dignity under duress.” — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

Winner Huston International Film Festival, broadcasted nationally on PBS.

This trailer is a 4-minute doc promoting the book, The Other Wes Moore. “Two kids with the same name living in the same decaying city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison for felony murder. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation.”

“An absorbing narrative that makes clear the critical roles that choices, family support and luck play in young people’s lives.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Moore writes with subtlety and insight … a moving exploration of roads not taken.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A story for our times.” — Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here

When Joan Dameron Crisler, Principal of Dixon Elementary School, first took charge of her school fifteen years ago the majority of the students were performing below national norms. Today, that trend has been reversed and Dixon is now considered one of the best public schools in the city of Chicago. This film follows the passionate and daring Ms. Crisler as she runs her school and confronts issues of education while interacting with students, teachers, parents, school board members — and even her hair dresser. Through these real-life encounters her unique vision of education and learning emerges.

Winner Chicago Emmy, broadcasted on PBS.

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World renown vocalist-songwriter-pianist Patricia Barber has earned a reputation as a fiercely independent artist who has paid enough dues to creatively call the shots on the kind of albums she wants to make. Modern Cool is a promotional short film with performance and interview that captures Barber performing several hits from her highly acclaimed CD, Modern Cool.

The Defenders captures the gritty drama of a criminal justice system as seen through the eyes of the hard-hitting female public defenders operating within it. This hour-long documentary follows a group of passionate, talented, women attorneys working in an Atlanta public defender office. Using a cinema verite style this film takes you on a journey with these lawyers through their compelling legal work and personal lives.

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