‘Step’ dance film at Sydney Film Festival

Step coming to 2017 Sydney Film FestivalThis year the Sydney Film Festival runs from June 7–18. One special dance film that will be presented is Step, an uplifting story of an American school step dance team on the verge of graduation. It won Director Amanda Lipitz a Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at Sundance.

 

Step will be screened at Event Cinemas on George Street on June 13 at 6 p.m. and June 15 at 8:15 p.m., and at Dendy Newtown on June 18 at 6:05 p.m.

 

Viewers will be introduced to Blessin, Cori, Taylor and the “Lethal Ladies” team at Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. The students have two goals: get accepted into college and win the Bowie State Step Competition. Through step dance they learn to make music with their bodies.

 

What also makes the 83-minute film interesting is that Lipitz started shooting it against a backdrop of riots following a black death in custody. So the project shines a light on racial inequality permeating the lives of these African-American high school seniors.

 

Variety writer Geoff Berkshire reviewed, “Without becoming expressly political, Step stands as a firm rebuttal to rampant misunderstandings about both the Black Lives Matter movement and life in poor urban areas. There’s no need to shoehorn any of that material into the story; it’s all seamlessly a part of the time Lipitz has captured.”

 

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney called the young women in the film “warm, funny, unselfconscious and unfailingly real.”

 

Book tickets at www.sff.org.au. Watch the film’s trailer below.

 

 

Photo of Step courtesy of the Sydney Film Festival.