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See the world premiere of LIFT at the Tribeca Film Festival
LIFT is the inspiring new documentary feature film by Oscar nominated Director, David Petersen (Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9). LIFT is produced by award-winning Producer, Mary Recine (Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold). Internationally acclaimed ballet dancer, Misty Copeland, is the Principal Advisor on the film and award winning filmmaker, Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI) is one of the film’s Executive Producers.
Filmed over ten years, LIFT shines a spotlight on the invisible story of homelessness in America through the eyes of 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, offering a ballet workshop to children. His traumatic reaction to the shelter from his childhood sends him on an unexpected journey with three kids to reckon with a past he had escaped from through ballet. As young dance students, Victor, Yolanssie and Sharia face the same chasm of home insecurity that long separated Steven from his audience and makes the arts inaccessible to so many kids who share his background. The children he mentors offer him insight into turning a hidden trauma into dance, and together they make an aristocratic art form into an expression all their own.
New York Theatre Ballet has been running the LIFT program since 1989. The program provides scholarships for talented at-risk and underserved children at NYTB's ballet school, and with programs that champion dance for the greater good.
LIFT will have its World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday June 12 at 2pm and more screenings between June 14-18. All information and tickets can be found at www.liftdocumentary.com.
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