LEGACY

While involved in a TV special, documentarian Tod S. Lending interviewed Dorothy Collins, a quarter-century resident of Chicago's dismal Henry Horner Homes housing projects. Two hours after telling Lending's camera how dangerous the environment was, Collins learned her own grandson Terrell had been fatally shot by another boy. For some that would chalk-mark the end of the story, since Terrell was the family's star, a hardworking honors student aspiring to be the first Collins to graduate high school; now just another grim urban statistic and local news headline, with the inevitable clip of weeping welfare mothers at the funeral, no fathers in sight. But for LEGACY it's only the beginning, as Lending's lens followed the Collinses for the next five years, a life-changing chronicle that proves Terrell's death was not in vain. His cousin, Nickcole Collins ? as strong and moving a non-pro narrator as we've ever heard ? puts a human voice to the oft-stereotyped portrait of ?at-risk? youth and blacks on public assistance, as Dorothy's two adult daughters, one Nikki's mother, the other Terrell's, fight against addiction, apathy, and despair, and Nikki herself charts a future away from gangs, drugs, and teen pregnancy. All are inspired by the lost son's memory, his legacy transforming Terrell from a faceless casualty to a true-life guardian angel.