Media release from the Rome International Film Festival:
RIFF and GA Power have teamed up with South Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to bring a very special documentary about the power of dance to lift homeless children and youth out of trauma. The film, entitled “LIFT”, is free, and will be shown on Saturday, October 19 at 2 pm at the Seven Hills Fellowship Great Room. The film follows Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet, Steven Melendez, on his quest to empower homeless children to believe in themselves. Melendez will be present at the screening in Rome and will answer questions from the audience after the film. After the Q&A Melendez will also hold a master class for any dance students that have interest in working with him. This is the only opportunity for dance lovers outside of Atlanta to attend the film screening and to meet Melendez.
“I came to enjoy a long, international career in classical dance as a fluke of luck,” said Melendez. I have Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean heritage, and I grew up in the South Bronx in the late-1980’s and 90’s in a single parent home. When I was seven years old my family was evicted from our home and for all the reasons one might imagine, and many others that are inexplicable, we ended up homeless. After some difficult first few days we moved into a NYC Homeless Shelter for women and children where we stayed for three years. It was in the shelter that I was introduced to New York Theatre Ballet and Project LIFT. In the 30 years since then I have come around, full circle, to lead NYTB as its new Artistic Director and am now charged with shepherding the organization, professional dance company and ballet academy that gave me a life that I would never have dreamed possible.”
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 New York Theatre 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 Melendez 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.
“This is a moving film that shows children can overcome almost any disadvantage with support and inspiration,” said Leanne Cook, executive director of the Rome International Film Festival. “It is also clear about the debilitating effects of homelessness on young people. We so appreciate Georgia Power for helping us bring this important film to Rome. And we are thankful to have many organizations in Rome working to alleviate the trauma of homelessness for every person. We invite the public to reserve a ticket for this event in an intimate space so that we can think about this important issue together as a community and talk about opportunities to serve.”