ABOUT

 

Synopsis

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 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.

Featuring

  • Named as the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet in April of 2022, Steven Melendez was born in New York City in 1986 and started his ballet training with the LIFT Program at Ballet School New York at the age of 7. He has danced as a Soloist dancer with Ballet Concierto in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a Principal dancer with The Vanemuine Theater Ballet Company in Tartu, Estonia, and for over 15 years with New York Theatre Ballet. He is a national and international guest artist and teacher and has worked across Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Steven co-choreographed his first large-scale work, Song Before Spring, for New York Theatre Ballet which was named a Dance Europe critic's choice “Best Premiere” of 2016. Steven is currently a member of the alumni advisory committee on diversity and inclusion for School of American Ballet and serves as the Hiland Artistic Director for National Dance Institute New Mexico.

  • Now age 21 and a member of New York City Ballet’s corps de ballet. Victor was born in New York City and began his training at the age of 10 at New York Theatre Ballet under Diana Byer. He attended the summer courses at the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school, in 2014 and 2015 before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In January 2019, Victor was named an apprentice with NYCB and in May 2019 he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet.

  • At age 16, Yolanssie moved with her family from Brooklyn to Queens. She hopes to finish high school and enroll in a college readiness program so that someday she can go to law school.

  • Now age 14 and in the 7th grade and living in Harlem, Sharia hopes to join a summer dance program through the after-school program and then apply to a performing arts high school.

  • Diana Byer is the founder and former Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet and New York Theatre Ballet School. She is a répétiteur for The Antony Tudor Trust, a member of the Board of Directors of the Dance Notation Bureau, on the Selection Committee of the Clive and Valerie Barnes Foundation, an Education Ambassador for The New York Pops, and on the Dance Portal Advisory Board of The Children’s Museum of Manhattan. She has staged the ballets of Antony Tudor for American Ballet Theatre and The Hartt School and the ballets of Agnes de Mille for the Alabama Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. She coached the principals for the Columbia Pictures film, Center Stage. Ms. Byer was selected by Good Housekeeping Magazine as the 2018 Humanitarian Hero. She was a long-time pupil and colleague of Margaret Craske, who was Director of Ballet Instruction at New York Theatre Ballet School until her retirement.

 
 

Filmmakers

  • Misty Copeland is a dancer for American Ballet Theatre, one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the US, and became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history. In addition to her dance career, in 2022 she founded The Misty Copeland Foundation, which provides after school programs for children that combine affordable ballet training in the communities where they live. She is the author of several books, including Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina and The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts From My Mentor Raven Wilkinson. In 2015, Misty Copeland was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, appearing on its cover. Most recently, she produced and stars in the film FLOWER, about ballet and homelessness, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

  • David Petersen’s films have been exhibited at numerous museums and festivals and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His documentary Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9 was nominated for an Academy Award and his PBS documentary If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Now was an Independent Spirit Award nominee. His feature documentary Let the Church Say Amen premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on the PBS series “Independent Lens.” Other films include Journey of the Bonesetter’s Daughter on PBS and 2 Months to Be Quiet, which premiered at MoMA. David also directed the acclaimed eight-part documentary series Strictly Ballet and the feature-length film The Witmans, a documentary about juvenile justice. His artist fellowships include MacDowell, Yaddo, VCCA, Blue Mountain Center, and the Ragdale Foundation.

  • Mary Recine is an award-winning producer of documentary films, television series, and cultural programs. Her work has been recognized with three Peabody Awards, multiple Emmy Award nominations, and has premiered at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, the New York Film Festival and MoMA. She is best known for producing the Netflix Original documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, directed by Joan’s nephew Griffin Dunne, and for her work as archival producer of the Academy Award nominated What Happened, Miss Simone? directed by Liz Garbus. As a producer for live events, she has created video projections for the Broadway stage, cultural institutions, and for performers ranging from Elton John to Chris Rock.

  • Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television editor, and producer/director. Sam edited a number of Spike Lee's films: Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, Bamboozled, and the Oscar-nominated documentary Four Little Girls, as well as When The Levees Broke, a 4-part documentary that won a Peabody and three Emmy Awards. Other projects include: producer/director on the Sundance competition film Slavery By Another Name; August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand for American Masters; Two Trains Runnin’; and Sammy Davis Jr., I’ve Gotta Be Me for American Masters. Sam also directed MLK/FBI, which premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival and served as a principal advisor for his documentary Let the Church Say Amen.

  • Jannat Gargi is Senior Vice President of Documentaries Westbrook Inc., and was Vice President of Documentaries for VICE Studios and Executive Producer of three-time Academy Award-nominated documentary Flee. Prior to VICE Studios, Gargi served as Head of Documentary Films for Vulcan Productions where she developed and produced documentary films including the Academy Award-nominated documentary and BAFTA winning Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Lead Me Home; Master of Light, Best Documentary Prize winner at SXSW; Academy Award-nominated short documentary, Hunger Ward; and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Body Team 12.

  • Martha Southgate served as an associate producer on David Petersen’s documentary Let The Church Say Amen. She is the author of four novels, including Another Way to Dance, set at the School of American Ballet, which won the Coretta Scott King Genesis Award. Her other novels include: The Taste of Salt, Third Girl from the Left, and The Fall of Rome, named one of the best novels of 2002 by The Washington Post. Her non-fiction has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times Book Review and Op-Ed page, O, The Oprah Magazine, and The Washington Post.

  • Laura Pilloni has been working on feature-length and short form documentaries, and narrative film projects since 2013. She was an associate producer on the ITVS-funded documentary Home Truth which premiered at the Human Rights Watch Festival, and the Chavela Vargas documentary, Chavela. Most recently she produced activist Elle Moxley’s short documentary Black Beauty.

  • DescriptJody is co-founder of Vulcan Productions, the film company she and her late brother Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, led from 1997 until the company closed in 2021. From early documentary and feature films to critically acclaimed impact projects, her credits include “Rx for Survival,” “Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues,” “Far from Heaven,” “Girl Rising,” and “Pandora’s Promise” through more recent award-winning productions such as “Racing Extinction,” “Master of Light,” and BAFTA, Grammy, and Academy Award winner “Summer of Soul.”

    She is also co-founder, board chair, and president of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, founding director of MoPOP, the museum of pop culture, and co-founder and chair of the board of the Allen Institute.

    Deeply committed to education and the arts, Jody is a board member of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, and previously served on the boards of the Los Angeles International Film Festival, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ArtsFund, the University of Washington Foundation, and the Museum of Glass.ion text goes here

  • Ruth Johnston is an award-winning executive producer of films including Oscar® winner SUMMER OF SOUL and Oscar® nominees HUNGER WARD and LEAD ME HOME. Other credits include festival favorites REASON I JUMP and MASTER OF LIGHT, along with hundreds of hours of award-winning film, television series, and interactive digital media projects. As an executive, she was COO of Lion TV in New York and most recently General Manager of Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions, where she grew and managed a team that became an industry leader in impact storytelling. At Vulcan, she was also a member of the company’s philanthropy and overall executive leadership team.

    Today, Ruth is co-founder of Consequential, a company that develops, produces and supports meaningful films and content-driven social impact campaigns. She is leading production on two feature-length documentary films, executive producing a short documentary, and developing several projects ranging across the spectrum of the world’s most pressing issues. Other client work includes advising philanthropists, storytellers and platforms on how to optimize strategies for development, production, distribution, and audience acquisition and activation.

  • Rocky has directing and producing credits on over 300 hours of film and television, including feature docs, dramatic features, and many documentaries on science, the arts, current events, history, social justice, and climate change.

    Rocky Collins was creative lead at Vulcan Productions responsible for such films as Oscar®-winner SUMMER OF SOUL, and Oscar®-nominated LEAD ME HOME and HUNGER WARD. Other recent films include YOUTH V GOV, THE REASON I JUMP, OLIVER SAKCS: HIS OWN LIFE, THE COLD BLUE, GHOST FLEET, and the OCEAN WARRIORS series.

    Before Vulcan Productions, Rocky was an Executive Producer at Science Channel, Director of Development at Lone Wolf Documentary Group, and President of Elevator Pictures.

  • As one of the leading creative voices in the entertainment industry today, Alex Kurtzman is known for his ability to bring complex source material, recognizable IP and original stories to screens with relatable, character-driven narratives that reach mass audiences and receive critical acclaim.

    Kurtzman and his production company Secret Hideout are dedicated to developing and producing a wide array of sophisticated and compelling content across all platforms through their overall TV deal with CBS Studios. Through the company, Kurtzman is at the helm of the growing “Star Trek” universe on Paramount+ including the award-winning STAR TREK: DISCOVERY; the critically acclaimed STAR TREK: PICARD, featuring Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard; STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS; the animated STAR TREK: PRODIGY, in partnership with Nickelodeon, that expands the franchise to young audiences; STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS, featuring beloved characters Pike, Spock and Number One which is adored by fans and press alike. In addition, there are two new “Star Trek” projects that were recently announced, including co-showrunning the all-new original series “STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY” and the original movie event “STAR TREK: SECTION 31” starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh.

    Kurtzman’s wide-range of credits include executive producer of the limited series THE COMEY RULE based on the James Comey book A Higher Loyalty, which aired in 2020 on SHOWTIME, in addition Kurtzman also served as an executive producer and co-creator with Jenny Lumet on THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, based on the Walter Tevis novel of the same name, which premiered on SHOWTIME in 2022, and feature multiple episodes directed by Kurtzman as well. Kurtzman also serves as an executive producer on the upcoming series THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY, an adaptation of Michael Chabon’s acclaimed novel of the same name.

    Secret Hideout has a full slate of projects in development for various platforms. Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, in partnership with CBS Studios, established a new multiplatform production entity 25 Stories, aimed at amplifying voices for people of color and creating sustainable career paths, from staff writer to showrunner. In the new venture, they are developing content for linear, premium cable and streaming platforms. They have served as producers on ROB PEACE starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige and Camilla Cabello as well as to be announced movies and television series under the 25 Stories umbrella.

    Outside of TV, Kurtzman has co-written some of the decade’s biggest films including “Star Trek,” “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” “The Amazing Spider Man 2,” “Transformers” and “Mission: Impossible III” and has directed films such as “The Mummy” and “People Like Us.” Additionally, he executive produced the romantic comedy “The Proposal” as well as the “Now You See Me” franchise. Overall, his writing and producing credits have earned over $4 billion worldwide.

    Kurtzman began his career writing for the popular TV series “Hercules.” He went on to write for “Xena: Warrior Princess,” where he moved up the ranks to become a head writer for the show at the age of 23. Kurtzman was a writer and eventual executive producer on J.J. Abrams’ groundbreaking series “Alias,” which led to a fruitful and collaborative relationship with Abrams and helped establish the new wave of engaging action dramas that have dominated television for the past 15 years.

  • Jenny Lumet was the co-creator and executive producer of the CBS drama series CLARICE, a sequel to the award winning film “Silence of the Lambs,” and served as co-creator and showrunner of the Showtime series THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. She has an overall deal with CBS Studios and is an executive producer on STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS and the upcoming STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY. She also co-wrote the episode “Runaway” for the Emmy-nominated series STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS.

    Additionally, in partnership with CBS Studios, Ms. Lumet along with Alex Kurtzman have established a new multiplatform production entity 25 Stories, which is aimed at amplifying voices for people of color and creating sustainable career paths, from staff writer to showrunner. In the new venture, they are developing content for linear, premium cable and streaming platforms. They have served as producers on ROB PEACE starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige and Camilla Cabello as well as to be announced movies and television series under the 25 Stories umbrella.

    Also upcoming, Ms. Lumet serves as creator, executive producer and writer on “Blackbird: Lena Horne and America”, which is based on the life of her grandmother, the incomparable entertainer and activist Lena Horne.

    Ms. Lumet wrote the screenplay for “Rachel Getting Married” for which she received the 2008 New York Film Critics Circle Award, 2008 Toronto Film Critics Association Award and 2008 Washington D.C Film Critics Association Award. She also received a 2008 NAACP Image Award. She is also the writer of the screen adaptations of The Center Cannot Hold and The Language of Flowers, and she served as a script doctor on the films “Remember Me,” “Bobbie Sue,” “Honeymoon with Harry” and “The Mummy.” She’s also written several other original screenplays, including “Kingdom of Louie” and “Sambo.”

    Ms. Lumet served on the council of the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and the board of the Writers Guild Initiative. She generated the WGAE’s first Diversity Caucus. She is an executive director of Bindercon, a conference for women and non-gender conforming writers, and holds screenwriting seminars for women of color and women over 40.

    Ms. Lumet lives in Los Angeles with her children.

  • Bruce Evans is a seasoned entertainment executive with over two decades of broadcast network experience. He has collaborated with many of the industry’s leading showrunners, writers and directors.

    Currently, Mr. Evans serves as Executive Vice President, 25 Stories Productions. In partnership with renowned producers Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, he is working to amplify voices of color through the development of content for linear, premium cable, and streaming platforms.

    Prior to his current position, Mr. Evans was a 25-year veteran of NBC where he last served as Executive Vice President, Current Programming, NBC Entertainment. As head of the department, Mr. Evans managed a large creative team and oversaw 20+ series each season in all genres.

    The list of successes over the course of Mr. Evans career is quite extensive and includes such series as “This Is Us”, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, “The Good Place”, “New Amsterdam”, “The Blacklist”, “Heroes”, “Grimm”, “Medium” and the entire Dick Wolf produced “Chicago” and “Law and Order” franchises.

    In addition to the shows named above, Mr. Evans has worked with some of the top names in the industry such as Dan Fogelman, Mike Schur, Eric Kripke, Shawn Ryan, Warren Leight, Neal Baer, Mindy Kaling, Tim Kring, Dan Goor, Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, Max Mutchnick & David Kohan to name a few.

    Mr. Evans is also a leader in the industry’s efforts to increase diversity both in front of and behind the camera. Notably, Mr. Evans joined forces with his peers and co-founded Colour Entertainment, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of diverse professionals in all aspects of the entertainment community. Mr. Evans still passionately continues his efforts in this regard and serves on the Board as its Vice President.

    Over his illustrious career at NBC, Mr. Evans had previously served as Senior Vice President, Current Programming, NBC Entertainment since 2007, Vice President, Current Series, NBC Entertainment, since July 2000, Director, Prime-Time Series, NBC Entertainment, since 1998, Manager, Prime-Time Series, NBC Entertainment, since August 1997, and Associate, Prime-Time Series, since August 1996.

    Before joining NBC, Mr. Evans served as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the National Association of County Health Officials in Washington D.C.

    A native of New Haven, Connecticut, Mr. Evans received a Bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from the Yale School of Management.

    Mr. Evans is the proud father of 11-year-old twins and currently resides in Studio City, Calif.

  • Lisa Kleiner Chanoff is co-founder of Catapult Film Fund. In 2010 Lisa and Bonni Cohen founded Catapult in order to enable important and moving documentary films to get off the ground and to fill a gap in the documentary funding landscape for development support. Lisa has a decades-long commitment to helping projects get off the ground. Before her career in filmmaking, she practiced law in San Francisco and with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. After leaving law practice, Lisa received a master’s degree in Museum Studies and worked with museums in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working with artists at the museum showed her the importance of early funding for producing new work, and she gravitated toward documentary film as a way to combine her interest in policy and creative and artful storytelling. Together with Bonni Cohen, Lisa executive produced Art & Craft, When God Sleeps and the Academy Award-nominated shorts Extremis and Life Overtakes Me. Lisa’s executive producer credits also include documentaries Watchers of the Sky, Brimstone and Glory, and Western (Co-EP), as well as narrative features Burn Country, Fruitvale Station (Co-EP), Loves & Taxes, and The Outside Story. She is president of the boards of SFFILM and Catapult Film Fund, and serves as a board member of photojournalism nonprofit Catchlight. She is an advisory board member of Close Up Initiative, and advisor for the Redford Center. Lisa is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

  • Bonni Cohen has produced and directed an array of award-winning films. Most recently, she produced the Oscar-nominated film LEAD ME HOME, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and is a Netflix Original. She also recently co-directed ATHLETE A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and received four nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards. Previously, Bonni co-directed AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER which was selected to be the opening night film of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, short-listed for the 2018 Oscars and nominated for a 2018 BAFTA for Best Documentary. In 2016 Bonni co-directed the Peabody Award winning film AUDRIE & DAISY, which premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up as a Netflix Original film. In addition to her directing work, Bonni served as Producer on THE ISLAND PRESIDENT, winner of the 2011 Toronto International Best Documentary. Her work as producer and director on THE RAPE OF EUROPA earned her a PGA and WGA nomination and was short-listed for the Oscars. In addition, Bonni produced Jon Else’s Sundance film, WONDERS ARE MANY and together with Else co-directed INSIDE GUANTANAMO, which was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary in 2009. Bonni also Executive Produced 3.5 MINUTES and ART AND CRAFT, both films were selected for the Oscar shortlist in 2015. Together with Lisa Chanoff, Bonni is the co-founder of the Catapult Film Fund.

  • Megan Gelstein is the Co-Director / Chief Program Officer of Catapult Film Fund. Catapult is dedicated to supporting nonfiction filmmakers with critical early stage funding and mentorship to launch distinctive, story-driven, and cinematic films.

    In her role, she supports and cultivates independent cinematic non-fiction filmmakers globally, and provides creative, strategic, and editorial advice to supported films and filmmakers through Catapult’s artist development programs. Recent films supported by Catapult include ALL THAT BREATHES (Sundance 2022, HBO), THE TERRITORY (Sundance 2022, National Geographic) AT THE READY (Sundance 2021, HBO-MAX) CRIP CAMP (Sundance 2020, Netflix), and AMERICAN FACTORY (Sundance, 2019, Netflix).

    Megan has also executive produced documentary features including BEYOND UTOPIA (Sundance 2023, Audience Award winner), A BUNCH OF AMATEURS (Sheffield 2022, BBC) which is 2022 top grossing doc feature in the UK, LOVE & STUFF (Hot Docs 2020, POV) dubbed “…a deeply resonant work. Honest and revealing, but not in an icky solipsistic way” and STORM LAKE (Full Frame 2021, IL) described as “…an elegiac heartland portrait...colored by the hope of endurance, both for the newspaper and the community it represents.”. Additional credits include RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE (IL 2023), and LIFT (Tribeca 2022, Paramount+).

    Megan leads Catapult’s effort to develop, advance, and champion a select team of diverse documentary filmmakers from the US with the Catapult Research Grant program. Her work designing and directing the program has launched 15 new projects helmed by diverse filmmakers. She also invests significant on-going effort providing mentorship to filmmakers at the annual Rough Cut Retreat, presented in partnership with the True/False Film Festival. The Rough Cut Retreat focuses on emerging filmmakers, particularly those who do not have established feedback networks.

    Prior to joining Catapult, her work as an independent Emmy Award-winning producer was supported by Sundance Documentary Fund and Chicken & Egg Pictures. She is a two-time Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, a two-time GOOD PITCH participant, and a BAVC Media Maker Fellow. In addition, Megan worked at PBS/WGBH-TV for 15 years, where she produced and directed films for the flagship series American Experience and NOVA, and won a National Emmy Award in the category of Research for her work on the PBS series “Africans in America”. In addition, she has produced award-winning documentaries that have been nationally broadcast on The History Channel, ITV Network of London, and The Discovery Channel.

  • Leyla Fayyaz is an Emmy-Winning journalist, writer and producer with nearly two decades experience in broadcast television, working for major media companies like Sony Music, Cablevision, Fox Entertainment/ O&O, Disney/ABC and Viacom/Comedy Central. Fayyaz began her career in the entertainment industry as a professional ballerina with American Ballet Theatre upon winning the Grand Prize at the very first Youth America Grand Prix competition. She is an alumnus of the HARID Conservatory and recipient of their Jeannot B. Cerrone Award for outstanding artistic achievement.

    In 2015, Fayyaz co-founded Life in Motion Productions with Misty Copeland with a goal of bringing more representative voices to multimedia platforms, with a focus on dance-based narratives.

  • Emmy Award-winning editor, M. Watanabe Milmore began her career in documentaries working as an assistant editor at Maysles Films. Her films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival such as Rebuilding Paradise directed by Ron Howard, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, and the Peabody Award winning documentary Paradise Lost: Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and Suited directed by Jason Benjamin. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and American Cinema Editors (ACE).

  • Emmy-nominated for her score in the award-winning films Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, she is a recipient of many fellowships and awards including the prestigious Sundance Time Warner Fellowship, Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, Sundance/Skywalker Documentary Film Scoring, African American Film Critics Award for Best Music in Film, BMI Conducting Fellowship and Society of Composers and Lyricists. A member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 2016 she became the first female African American score composer in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

  • Gary Griffin is an internationally acclaimed cinematographer whose work has received awards and recognition all over the world. His documentaries include Miss Sharon Jones! and Shut Up and Sing, directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple. In 2005, he was awarded the Sundance Film Festival’s American Excellence in Cinematography Award for The Education of Shelby Knox, and was the director of photography of the Academy Award-winning documentary Educating Peter.

  • Alan Jacobsen served as Director of Photography for the Academy Award-nominated documentary Strong Island, which also received a Primetime Emmy Award, among others. He was the Director of Photography for the Oscar-nominated director Marshall Curry on Racing Dreams and Point and Shoot, documentaries that both received Grand Jury Prizes at the Tribeca Film Festival. The Trials of Daryl Hunt won the Audience Award at Full Frame, was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Awards, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award.

  • KEITH REAMER is a NY-based film editor, director and educator, who has been in the film industry for more than thirty-five years. He has edited over 50 features and documentaries, many of which have gone on to receive awards at major festivals, including Cannes, Sundance and Toronto. His credits include The Ballad of Little Jo, I Shot Andy Warhol, Songcatcher, Three Seasons, Amreeka, The China Hustle and Stephanie Daley, among many others. In 2009, he led an intensive feature editing workshop for the Royal Film Commission of Amman, Jordan and in the following year returned to serve as a mentor on the RFC production, A 7 Hour Difference. In recent years, Keith has also had the opportunity to direct several documentaries of his own, including Made a Movie, Lived to Tell, with co-director William Murray, which premiered at the Montclair Film Festival. He is a member of American Cinema Editors (ACE).

Advisors

  • Misty Copeland is a dancer for American Ballet Theatre, one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the US, and became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history. In addition to her dance career, in 2022 she founded The Misty Copeland Foundation, which provides after school programs for children that combine affordable ballet training in the communities where they live. She is the author of several books, including Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina and The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts From My Mentor Raven Wilkinson. In 2015, Misty Copeland was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, appearing on its cover. Most recently, she produced and stars in the film FLOWER, about ballet and homelessness, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

  • Cuban-born Lourdes Lopez has been the Artistic Director of Miami City Ballet (MCB) since 2012, bringing with her a 4-decade career in dance, television, teaching and arts management, including a number of years as Soloist and Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet.

  • David Lansky served as Director of Production and Operations with American Ballet Theatre for many years before becoming the company’s General Manager.

  • Wendall Harrington is an Obie and Drama Desk Award-winning theatrical projection designer and has served as the nation’s leading projection designer on over 35 Broadway shows and with leading US ballet companies.

  • Nan Roman is the president of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, DC and is a leading national voice on homelessness policy, working to help communities prevent or end homelessness by enacting programs that offer concrete solutions in the United States.

Director’s Statement

As a director, my films focus on people in search of a home. I’m drawn to stories about people trying to find shelter, a connection, or identity in small communities often estranged from the outside world. Ten years ago, a performing arts photographer, introduced me to New York Theatre Ballet and their program called LIFT, in which they went into homeless shelters and offered scholarships to kids interested in ballet. A film that started out with just me, a camera, and a microphone grew into a decade-long collaboration between dancer Steven Melendez, our production team, and the families profiled in the documentary. After touring the world as a dancer, Steven returned to the shelter of his childhood to recruit kids for ballet. Suddenly, he found himself on an unexpected journey, exploring the trauma of his homelessness through these children. Since my own father grew up poor and home insecure in the Bronx,  the story of LIFT captivated me. Following the challenges and aspirations of these remarkable kids and their mentor took 10 years, but the rewards of growing with them, their families, and their communities made the record of this journey well worth the effort.  

 

Funding and Support

This film was made possible by
Vulcan Productions

In association with
JustFilms | Ford Foundation
Catapult Film Fund

by support of Contributing Producers
Foothill Productions - Jamie Wolf and Nathalie Seaver
Nancy Blachman
Tiger Tales Media

and with support from
the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature

Fiscal sponsorship by
The Center for Independent Documentary
UnionDocs