TWR’s ‘Lifted’ earns honors at film fest

Alex Lemus accepted honors for the documentary film Lifted on behalf of the TWR Video Team at the 2026 Christian Worldview Film Festival last weekend.

TWR’s film Lifted received runner-up honors in the documentary division of this year’s Christian Worldview Film Festival.

The awards were announced on Friday, March 13, in Albany, Georgia. Finding the Hiding Place, about the making of the 1975 movie telling Corrie ten Boom’s story, was the winner in that division. It was produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 

Lifted: A Dying Tribe Encounters New Life, debuted in November 2024. It tells the true-life adventure story of a family who moved to the Amazonian jungle to tell Indigenous tribes about Jesus.

The 76-minute film was the first full-length documentary produced by TWR, also known as Trans World Radio.

Clay Perry and Alex Lemus, two of the film’s producers, said the award exceeded their expectations. 

“We saw the official selections come out and we thought: There’s no way Lifted will win, but it’s still cool to be in the running with big productions,” said Perry, 32, TWR’s Global Marketing and Communications video director.

“We were just there for the experience of it,” agreed Lemus, 28, also a member of the TWR video team.

Also nominated were Smoke & Thunder: The Senega Revolution and The Voice of Rómulo, both produced by Faith Comes From Hearing; and Truth Rising, produced by Focus on the Family and the Colson Center.

Lifted is about Ivan and Doris Schoen, who in 1961 moved with their three preschool-aged children to the interior of Suriname to live among remote tribes who were believed to be fierce and warlike. 

Using footage taken by the Schoen family from the earliest days along with interviews of family members, it tells how the Schoens gradually befriended two tribes, the Wayana and the Trio, learned their languages and over time introduced them to Christ.

The youngest of the Schoens, Tom, now serves with TWR and has been working alongside the tribes to build two radio stations in the jungle, one broadcasting in each of the tribal languages.

In his acceptance speech for the film, Lemus provided an update on that project:

“Two radio stations are now built in the Amazon jungle, so people that have never heard the gospel before are now hearing the gospel through radio,” he reported to vigorous applause.

Perry had expected to also be present at the awards ceremony. But the day before, he began the 8½-hour drive back to home base in North Carolina even as Lifted was being screened for the festival audience. His wife, Amanda, was well into her eighth month of pregnancy and was experiencing contractions.

That story hasn’t been finished. The baby decided to wait.

Note: You can watch Lifted here.