Join us for a post screening discussion with Oscar-nominated filmmaker David Petersen and Steven Melendez, artistic director of the New York Theatre Ballet.
Filmed over ten years and under executive producers including world-renowned dancer Misty Copeland, Lift tells the often-unseen story of homelessness in the United States through a group of young homeless and home-insecure ballet dancers in New York City. After performing all over the world, ballet dancer Steven Melendez returns to the Bronx shelter where he grew up to give back to his community by offering a New York Theatre Ballet workshop. His reaction to the shelter from his childhood sends him on an unexpected journey with three kids —Victor, Yolanssie and Sharia— to reckon with the past he escaped through ballet. The young dance students face the same chasm of home insecurity that long separated Steven from his audience and that makes the arts inaccessible to so many young people. The children Steven mentors offer him insight into turning hidden trauma into dance, and together they turn ballet into their very own form of expression. (David Petersen, 2022, DCP, 87 minutes)
Part of the ongoing series Art Films and Special Screenings.