Summary

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.

Cast

• Uriah Shelton
  Uriah Shelton
  Uriah Shelton is an American teen actor and singer. He is the son of accountant Allen Shelton and house-wife Cindy Shelton. His name means "God is light" in Hebrew. Shelton was born in Dallas, Texas but spent spent most of his childhood in Magnolia Springs, Alabama with both of his parents. ...
  
   as Henry Matthews
• Dash Mihok
  Dash Mihok
  Dashiell "Dash" Mihok is an American actor.-Life and career:Mihok was born in New York City, New York, the son of actors Andrea and Raymond Thorne . He attended the Bronx High School of Science and was raised in Greenwich Village. While at the Bronx High School of Science, Dash played baseball as...
  
   as William Matthews
• Nicki Aycox
  Nicki Aycox
  -Personal life:Aycox was born in Hennessey, Oklahoma. She has a younger brother, Steve. She speaks fluent German according to an interview in Jack magazine. She also comes from a Native American heritage.-Career:Aycox began performing at a young age...
  
   as Lisa Matthews
• Anna Marie Dobbins as Tiffany Rose Walton
• Ruben Studdard
  Ruben Studdard
  Christopher Theodore Ruben Studdard , best known as Ruben Studdard, is an American R&B, pop, and gospel singer. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol...
  
   as Pastor Johnson

Production

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

Johnny Flynton

Johnny Flynton is a short film that was directed by Lexi Alexander and was nominated for an Academy Award.. It is based on a true story about a boxer that accidentally kills the wife that he loves.-Reception:...

. The film was shot entirely in Birmingham, Alabama, in the USA. The film was also endorsed by HRock Church of Pasadena, California. The church's senior pastor, Che Ahn, 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." Lifted was the first film made under Alabama's new film incentive program.

External links

• http://blog.al.com/aharvey/2009/07/hunter_brothers_team_with_lexi.html
• http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jwordin/2010/02/15/review-lifted-the-anti-war-movie-for-everyone/#more-307922