‘Slipping Into Goodbye’ receives 2026 JXN Film Festival nomination
By Brinda F. Willis, Ph.D.
JA Contributing Writer
Author and screenwriter Felicia Kelly-Brookins’ script for a film, entitled “Slipping Into Goodbye,” has been nominated for a 2026 JXN Film Festival award. Her script submission recounts her mother’s journey into dementia.
Kelly-Brookins is no stranger to the literary and, now, the scriptwriting arena. This script is a very personal account of what she and her sisters went through while caretaking for the matriarch of the Kelly family.
She said: “I wanted to document my mother’s journey as she was literally slipping away from me and our family when dementia was taking control of her emotionally and physically. I wanted to document the way she was saying goodbye to us with the hope of helping others who are going through and dealing with the side effects and complications of a dastardly disease that is gripping so many families throughout the United States and here in Mississippi.”
The JXN Film Festival’s board members nominated “Slipping Into Goodbye”. Kelly-Brookins’ submission followed the required 150-page script format. The script lists Kelly-Brookins as the director and executive producer. The cast of characters appearing in “Slipping Into Goodbye” includes:
Stephen Brandon – Kenny Simmons (Husband of Sister Nadeen Simmons),
Felicia Brookins (Sister Nadeen Simmons),
Dr. Sonya Valentine – Momma Ruth (Mother of Sister Nadeen Simmons),
Eva Tamika Parnell (Sister Nadeen Simmons’ younger sister),
Patsy Simmons – Trinity Johnson (Older Daughter),
Ann Simmons – DeShay Hopkins (Middle Daughter), and
Josie Simmons (Youngest Daughter).
As the listing of cast members shows, as the disease of dementia progresses, it affects the patient and filters down through multiple generations of the patient’s family.
“Slipping Into Goodbye” has a Mississippi author born in Meridian. Kelly-Brookins began her career in Jackson, where she now calls home. After earning a journalism degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1989, she held several positions with WorldCom, Blue Cross, and Conduent. She currently works as a program engineer analyst. She began writing after participating in a screenwriting class presented by Maximus Wright in 2023.
Kelly-Brookins also is the owner of The Brownie Collective and S.A.F.E. S.P.A.C.E., a youth-oriented group concentrating on mental health, faith, and stigma surrounding various mental health issues.
There will be a reading of “Slipping Into Goodbye” at Tougaloo College in the Thompson Auditorium on July 30, 2026, that is open and free to the public.
A gala will be held at the Two Mississippi Museums on July 31, 2026, to announce the winner of the 2026 JXN Film Festival. Tickets are available at https://jxnfilmfestival.com/.
Kelly-Brookins is married to Jason Brookins for 32 years, and is the mother of one son, Phillip.
