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Empowering Voices: Two women transforming women's stories into an inspiring docuseries

Filmmakers Amanda Willoughby and Jessica Chaney are dedicated to amplifying the voices of women who have faced struggles in sharing their stories.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In their powerful documentary "I AM," filmmakers Jessica Chaney and Amanda Willoughby showed mental health through the eyes of five Memphis women in different stages of life, motherhood, and their careers. 

“It just really came out of my own struggles with mental health and starting to reach out into the community, especially the Black community and Black women, around how they were working through issues with their mental health and the challenges that they were having.” 

Willoughby continued, “We are Black women who both deal with anxiety. So this is something we personally know so well, and we just wanted to explore that.” 

Two women who went from coworkers to filmmakers set out to capture how mental health issues impacts these women in Memphis and their families. 

“I heard things that we've never even talked about in private conversations that came out in the interview, and I was able to learn how they deal with these things in the face of all that they're going through, and how they go about their lives and keep these things a secret.” 

Both Willoughby and Chaney say they won’t stop giving a voice to people who might be struggling to speak up. 

“I've always wanted to turn this into a docuseries,” Willoughby said. “So that is the dream of getting more stories and more women. Because after putting this out there, we've had so many women coming to us telling us, 'I have some story to tell. When can I get interviewed?' So that's definitely in the plan to really branch out.” 

To watch the documentary, you can download the PBS app or click here.

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