The University hosted a public screening of the documentary Step in Schafler auditorium on Monday, Oct. 16. The documentary was filmed during the 2015-2016 school year and focuses on three high school students, Blessin Giraldo, Cori Grainger, and Tayla Solomon. Grainger is a current sophomore at Hopkins.
The film follows the girls during their senior year at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) and documents their struggles as they apply for college and prepare for their step dance team competitions.
The film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released in theaters on Aug. 4, 2017.
After the screening, Grainger and Giraldo held a question and answer panel along with Amanda Lipitz, the film’s director.
University President Ronald J. Daniels introduced the panelists and explained why he felt it was important to hold the screening on campus.
“I think it’s a great story. It shows the amazing institutions that you see all over Baltimore. People are doing amazing things,” he said.
Giraldo said that in making the film, she felt it was important to give viewers a new perspective of Baltimore.
“A lot of people around the world... think Baltimore is scary, poisonous, drug-filled, violent,” she said. “There are a lot of different layers to the city, and being an example of that is amazing.”
For Lipitz, the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black Baltimore resident who died from injuries sustained in police custody, and the Baltimore Uprising were the primary reasons she decided to create the movie.
“I saw my home town burning on television, and it wasn’t the Baltimore I knew,” she said. “It certainly wasn’t representative of what was going on at BLSYW and [of] these young women... so that’s why we made the film.”
Lipitz said that one of the most memorable moments for her was when she spent a day with the other competing step teams in Baltimore. She described her experiences getting to know the other competitors.
“They all said the same thing. They said, ‘We don’t want to be labeled as Baltimore girls. Now there’s this whole other stigma attached to us and we don’t want people to think that,’” she said.
Lipitz also explained that she was particularly appreciative of Hopkins’ openness to filming on campus.
“Hopkins was so supportive of this film and so open to us coming and filming student orientation,” Lipitz said. “There’s a deleted scene that I never got into the movie of Cori and her dad sitting on the campus of Hopkins on her graduation day, and it’s just an incredible scene.”
Grainger also discussed the experience of having her everyday life filmed.
“At first it was very awkward. I didn’t understand why [Lipitz] wanted to be in my personal space, in my room,” she said. “It took a while to get used to.”
Grainger also elaborated on how going on tour for the film has enabled her to network and find career opportunities.
“When we went to San Francisco, near the Silicon Valley area, because I’m majoring in computer science and when I said that the entire audience just went crazy because that’s the computer science tech hub,” she said. “Step has done so many things for us.”
