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What's Left Behind

What's Left Behind is a documentary highlighting the stories of moms and families of murdered loved ones in Chicago. The documentary examines the aftermath of Chicago violence in the lives of surviving family members. Family members discuss how the trauma and grief impacts their daily life and mental and emotional well being. It also highlights the need for mental and emotional resources in violent communities.

  • Janice Collins
    Director
  • Ruby Mendenhall
    Director
  • Lisa Butler
    Director
  • Janice Collins
    Writer
  • Janice Collins
    Producer
  • Ruby Mendenhall
    Producer
  • Lisa Butler
    Producer
  • Ebony Boyles
    Key Cast
  • Krysti Brown
    Key Cast
  • Jenai Brown
    Key Cast
  • Sharon Parker Miles
    Key Cast
  • Julien Miles
    Key Cast
  • Veronica Parker
    Key Cast
  • Charisma Pryor
    Key Cast
  • Lisa Roy-McGee
    Key Cast
  • Velinda Simpson
    Key Cast
  • Marc Julian Simpson
    Key Cast
  • Beth Thomas
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 21 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 6, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    1080p
  • Aspect Ratio:
    19.20x1080
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Janice Collins, Ruby Mendenhall, Lisa Butler

Dr. Janice Marie Collins is a multi-national and international award-winning professional journalist, documentarian, and media expert with more than 35 years of experience in the media industry. She is also an international and national award-winning professor, scholar, researcher of mixed methodology, and creative with 21 years of experience on the university level.

She has worked in network and top-level news and sports organizations as well as freelance positions as a storyteller for social impact. While working at WXIA in Atlanta, Georgia, ranked in the top ten market of the nation, Collins was nominated for 12 Emmy awards and took home 6 as an individual – more as a member of news teams. She has also won Best of Gannett, Associated Press, NABJ, AABJ, and other esteemed awards for writing, producing, reporting, cinematography, directing, and editing.

Some of her awards include multiple Emmys, Best of Gannett, Associated Press, NABJ, and AABJ for writing, producing, reporting, cinematography, directing, narration and editing. Her documentary and web series, A Taste of Gullah, won Best Documentary at the International Garifuna film Festival Award in Venice, California and has over 15 million views across media platforms including PBS and her comprehensive (5 hours), auto-ethnography series, “Journey to My Mother’s Land: Extending the Gate’s Effect into Africa,”(opens in a new window) chronicling her immersion-trip back to her maternal ancestral land of Sierra Leone, West Africa and the Mende tribe was selected for the 4th Dimension Independent Film Festival 2021 and awarded first place in the cinematography category and screened in Paradiso Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It was also selected for the Accolade Global Film Festival 2021 in La Jolla, California and won Best Director. Her docuseries aired in the U.K., U.S., Canada, and across Africa via NTA, one of the largest, most expansive media broadcasting systems in Africa.

She created a national award-winning website of inclusion called HearMyVoiceOnline.com and has published podcasts, research, articles, books, and book chapters across disciplines.

Collins is the President of ACEing IT Consulting, LLC, CEO of World Changers Media International Foundation, and earned her M.S. in Journalism at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and a PH.D. in Mass Communications/Media Arts and Studies and Women and Gender Studies in the Scripps College of Communications. She specializes in broadcast and digital journalism, documentary storytelling , leadership development, de-marginalization, media storytelling for social impact, and methods of teaching and performing with full inclusion and empowerment.

In all that she does, she works to bring out the best in people and works to make the world more informed, more educated, kinder, and gentler to one another as a Global family. In proper fashion, she was selected as GAIA INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE 2023 HUMANITY LEADER TOP PICKS. Collins is also a Kopenhaver Fellow.

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