LIFT Free Screening

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.

The Mississippi Film Society and Ballet Mississippi, in partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council and the Mississippi Film Office, are pleased to invite you to a free screening of Lift on Thursday night, March 20, at 7 pm at the Capri Theatre (3023 N State Street). The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with director/producer David Peterson and Ballet Mississippi Artistic Director David Keary. Tickets are first-come, first-served and are limited to 4 per order. Food and drink will be available for purchase during the screening. Parking is now available in the garage located directly behind the Capri Theatre.

This screening of Lift is part of SouthArts’ Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. Since its inception in 1975, Southern Circuithas brought influential independent filmmakers and their films from around the country to communities throughout the South. The program is made possible through a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Host or Publisher MISSISSIPPI FILM SOCIETY