By Josephine Lee

The award-winning documentary “SPELLERS,” the crew of which included alumni from The Master’s University and a TMU faculty member, is now available to watch for free on YouTube.

“SPELLERS” took home the 2023 Best Documentary award at the Phoenix Film Festival. The film was also selected for the Donor’s Choice Award – Competition Feature Film. Evan Rogers (’19) served as editor, Emma Beck Rogers (’19) served as assistant editor, and communications professor Jefferson Henson is credited as a cinematographer.

The crew filmed families in states and cities from Portland to San Diego over the course of 18 months. Evan Rogers, who was a mentee of Henson’s in his senior year at TMU, was a key part of post-production.

The team hoped to put the spotlight on a therapy called S2C (Spell to Communicate) that could help many children with autism, limited ability to speak, or unreliable speech, to finally be heard.

Henson understood that filming these real stories would require “a gentle and finessed touch” but found the whole experience “a massive blessing.” “Being part of this,” he said, “I had a front row seat into seeing some of these kids be able to communicate for the first time.”

Henson teaches for the Marketing Media program as well as Cinema & Digital Arts, which is raising the next generation of Christ-focused artists. Learn more here.