WIDESCREEN FOCUS: STEP (2017)

STEP | Fox Searchlight | Directed by Amanda Lipitz | Documentary | 84 min. | NR

Full disclosure: this film article was scheduled to release a week before it saw its publish date. Then something happened: Charlottesville, VA. The home of progressively-minded University of Virginia (and home of Tina Fey for those paying attention to the interwebs this weekend) and sadly, also home to the most flagrant display of violence and bigotry this country has seen in some 50 years. It simply made this writer rethink the film and its importance during this tumultuous time for all of us. The documentary focus and the people it involves, none directly tie into this disturbing thread of American divisiveness, but it does all the same: as one of the best instruments of nonviolence that can be watched and respected. After interviewing its director (a Jewish, white, Broadway-bred, Tony award-winning producer now filmmaker, it is important to note), it was apparent that the story it relayed on camera was as important as the backdrop from which it originated: Baltimore, MD. This was following events in 2015, in the wake of senseless killing of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, of which protests arose in the legal prosecution of those responsible for Gray's death in the police force and an end to police brutality. This was a heavy burden for Baltimore to carry, but, the city persevered, without casualties, and from it came a nonviolent showcase of art, community and responsibility. 

Tayla Solomon and Lethal Ladies of BLSYW (Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women) Step Team.

Let it be known, this documentary is in no way political, don't let the opening paragraph above fool; it is a story about the strength, hurdles and joy of the human condition. Its relevance to the subject mentioned though is how those affected did not retaliate in hatred or violence, but rather used their art to come together and tell a different story to the public-at-large.  

Filmmaker Lipitz cut her teeth on short films about first generation, girls in education making their way to college. This was a "perfect marraige of ... two things I was doing": making musicals and telling stories of going to college, "a mash-up of the two." " 'Mess with my sister and you mess with me' is the theme that is the whole film, lined up like a musical". She adds, "The college process looked like a ballet ... a show-stopping number" that truly shows these girls being their best against the worst of circumstances. "I didn't disconnect, I was part of their lives. I met these girls in sixth grade. I was obsessed with them, with their step team. I certainly didn't interfere with what was happening ... Paula [Dofat, the school's guidance counselor], Coach G did her job, and I knew everything they had done, what the school had done, was going to be amazing. You are hit with all this hope and power and bravery. Everything that you feel in the movie as you watch it was how I felt when I made it."

At BLSYW (Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women), STEP focuses on the founding class that works its way through its senior year to what the school has committed to: 100 percent college enrollment for the students in this class. That is a tall order, but, as the film introduces you to Blessin, Cori, Tayla, their parents and the supporting educators around them, the fulfillment on this order seems not only possible, but almost sacrosanct.

Blessin Giraldo (left) and the Lethal Ladies make their walk towards the STEP finals for their school

"Honestly, I think [the girls] told me how to be," Coach G reflects longingly on her coaching style in how to balance what it took to drive them to their STEP finals in Bowie, MD, the climax of the film. "I treated them with the same respect that I wanted. Something I felt was missing with the adults when I was a child. Being transparent ... allowed them to see that I really loved them, and allowed me to really love them, to learn how to balance that. Intitally I don't think I did have a balance, they taught me more than I taught them, honestly."  

School counselor Paula Dofat considers the driving factor in what propelled these girls' path to success was the work that she, Coach G (Gari McIntyre) did as "two sides of the same coin" without even realizing it. "I had no clue what she was doing ..." (behind the scenes, Dofat was the STEP advisor the year prior) "... I didn't understand the social piece she was dealing with, I didn't understand the emotional pieces she was dealing with. I'm actually ... a tough, no nonsense person. The capacity she has, I just don't." She didn't realize until after the film wrapped that "we were actually making a great team that we had no idea we were delivering."

There is a practicality, a logical way of getting to college while the artistry of STEP, working two sides of the brain and giving them a release that their roles within their family and community were not giving them. "Every girl has exactly what they need to get to their next STEP," Dofat ends with perfectly said regarding the film.

Making a movement collectively, artistically as the Lethal Ladies of BLSYW.

"Black Lives Matter" meets Michael Jackson's "Remember The Time" is the creative conduit that this team pushes to finals, all while its onscreen students Blessen deals with failing grades and a mother whose depression surpasses the needed care the STEP leader desperately needs to succeed; the all-too-caring mother that Tayla feels smothered by, but works tirelessly to please through the steps she learns; Cori firing on all c

ylinders as potential valedictorian for the founding class, aiming for John Hopkins University while her parents fear that she won't be able to go due to their existing income and situation. Make no mistake, this film is brimming with social drama and toil, which makes it all the more rewarding when you see these girls become young ladies with the tools this extracirricular STEP team and their school offers them.

"I can't predict the future. I know that when they left my hands, they left with the best they could possibly have," Dofats contemplates. "If we as, just as human beings do that, that when someone leaves your presence they left with the best you had to offer, maybe we can have a better world." No better words.

 

Documentary filmmaker Amanda Lipitz, BLSYW educators Paula Dofat and Coach G at July 19th interview in Detroit

STEP is now playing in select theaters.