| Lifted | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Lexi Alexander |
| Written by | Lexi Alexander |
| Starring | Uriah Shelton Dash Mihok Nicki Aycox |
| Music by | Kurt Farquhar |
| Cinematography | David Brower |
| Editing by | Gregory Nussbaum |
| Studio | Listed Picture |
| Release date(s) | August 9, 2011 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Lifted is a film directed by Lexi Alexander. It was released to DVD in 2011.
Contents |
Henry Matthews lives in a small town in Alabama, where he lives with his parents, William and Lisa Matthews. His father is a garage mechanic, but is also in the Reserves, while his mother is unemployed, but goes to group-therapy sessions for a drug addict that she had dropped one year and four months ago. Henry is a middle-schooler, and deals with bullies after school, forcing him to eventually take refuge in the Baptist Church where Henry meets Pastor John. Pastor John takes a liking to Henry when they begin to play worship music on a the church's piano, and discovers Henry is a very talented singer. Pastor John gives Henry a flyer for the Alabama Teen Star Quest, a singing competition in Birmingham. William's Reserve Unit is activated and deployed to Afghanistan. While William is gone, Henry sends him songs to listen to, and to show off to his Marine buddies. While William is gone, Henry's mom cannot afford the mortgage on the house, and they move into Lisa's dad's trailer, without telling William. Lisa's dad hates the music Henry listens to, and hits Henry one day for playing the wrong music. Henry skips school, but Lisa thinks he is gone. She begins to bike to her therapy session, but turns around. She walked to the neighbor and gets high, breaking her promise to William that she'd stay sober. Henry watches his mom get high out of the window, and begins to pack his things. He tells his mom "bye," but she is too high to understand. Henry runs to Birmingham to enter the singing competition. His dad comes home while he's gone, and finds the house empty, and his wife high, then runs to Birmingham where he finds Henry. Henry gets far in the competition, and is covered on the news, where Lisa's dad sees him. Lisa and her dad go to Birmingham and find Henry. Lisa dad tells the competition officials that he hasn't had a parent with him the entire time. Henry looks at his dad and asks "What are they talking about?," to which his dad replies, "I don't think they can see me, Henry." His dad was killed by an Afghan woman back when he was deployed, but William's spirit was just with Henry the whole time. [1]
The film was produced by Deborah Del Prete who produced Lexi Alexander's first full length feature film, "Green Street Hooligans." Alan and Hugh Hunter, are co producers on the film, they also produced Alexander's Oscar nominated short Johnny Flynton. The film was shot entirely in Birmingham, Alabama, in the USA. The film was also endorsed by HRock Church of Pasadena, California.[2] The church's senior pastor, Che Ahn,[3] and his son, Gabe Ahn, were shown a special screening of the film and Gabe was quoted as saying "What I liked so much about this film is that it centered on family relationships, but at the same time encourages us to dream big."[4] Lifted was the first film made under Alabama's new film incentive program.[1]