MIFF- Step and City Of Ghosts

Today was the last day of the MIFF and my final two films of this year's festival. I began my afternoon with the documentary Step about the girls representing the Lethal Ladies step team from the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. The film focuses on three of the girls as they go through their senior year of high school and try not only to win the state level step competition but also get into college. It's a fantastic film that honestly shows the struggles the girls and their families face, along with the great support provided by school staff and their step coach to help the girls to succeed.

Next I watched the documentary City Of Ghosts about the Syrian citizen journalists from the website Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (R.B.S.S.) who documented the atrocities of ISIS' occupation of their city. Risking their lives to show the world what is happening in their homeland, this group of men fight against ISIS not with guns but by transmitting the truth and facts to counteract the ISIS propaganda machine. The men end up in exile in Turkey and Germany, but still work with informants inside Syria to get stories of the war and realities of life under ISIS out to the public. It's a difficult film to watch, but one that is really important for everyone to see.