A Jelani Day documentary premieres at the Foxtail Film Festival

but first tonight a documentary honoring the life of Jelani Day the movie released at the inaugural foxtail Film Festival it's being held at the normal theater abriata Rittman had a chance to speak with some of those student filmmakers and Brianna what inspired this film Rebecca gelani day was a Illinois State University graduate student whose body was found in the Illinois River in 2021 portrait of Jelani grief art in memory was created about a mural painted in Uptown Normal by unknown artists

and that mirror was painted shortly after John Lonnie day's body was identified and but then taken down the next day now Jelani day's family is still searching for answers as to what happened to him the artist's identity is revealed in the film for ISU students worked on the documentary the students say they just wanted to keep day story alive going into it our whole goal was to bridge shed more light onto jelani's situations I still feel like there's not enough light being shut on it there's a

lot of things that are unsolved a lot of questions that still need answering we wanted to keep it kind of like close to campus something that resonates with us where we're not involved but we can find out a little bit more and the portrait was really a perfect opportunity and the Jelani Day Foundation is offering a scholarship for seniors at Danville High School and that application is available at the school Rebecca