One of the year's most acclaimed documentaries, Amanda Lipitz's "Step," will screen on Saturday, December 16th, at DePaul University's CDM Theatre in Chicago. The free screening will be co-hosted by the university and the Chicago Housing Authority ("CHA") in conjunction with RogerEbert.com publisher Chaz Ebert, and entertainment attorney Brenda Robinson. Lipitz's film is sure to engage viewers of all ages with its uplifting portrait of a girls' step team striving to succeed at a Baltimore high school. Their pursuit of college, and a step championship, is one worth cheering for, and the dance scenes are thrilling to behold.
"It really means so much to me that DePaul University's School of Cinematic Arts Program and the Chicago Housing Authority cared enough to oversee this event for the young ladies and their families to enjoy," said Ebert. "I also hope that the emerging filmmakers in the group are as inspired by 'Step' as I was when I took a film course at a community center when I was living in CHA public housing many years ago. Before then, I didn't differentiate between the director or screenwriter or cinematographer. Afterwards I looked at films in a new light. I hope this event can be a catalyst for some future filmmaker or future businesswoman sitting in our audience Saturday."
Among the guests of honor will be the graduates from the DePaul & CHA Documentary Film Camp, a five-week summer intensive where high school girls collaborate with award-winning filmmakers to produce four films on relevant social topics. Also in attendance are members of ICMC’s Global Girls, a remarkable film residency program for young women in shelters and detention centers. Over the course of fourteen weeks, the participants watch and discuss eighty films with an emphasis on diversity, create their own film, and go on to curate their own international film festival.
A Question and Answer panel discussion will follow.
Click here to read Chaz Ebert's report on the CHA Program in Documentary Filmmaking.
Registration for the event is closed.
Matt Fagerholm is an Assistant Editor at RogerEbert.com and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.
