By Sydney Byerly
The Indiana Citizen
August 21, 2025
Fort Wayne filmmakers Mark and Amber Archer have built a platform telling stories they frame as biblical truth — and one of their most consistent champions is now Indiana’s lieutenant governor.
Through their production company, Fearless Features, the Archers have premiered several of their documentaries on hot-button cultural issues at Life Church, where Micah Beckwith serves as both pastor and politician.
On July 11, Beckwith hosted the Archers in Noblesville for a viewing of their latest film “Title IX,” lauding their documentaries as “biblical truth” for a congregation primed to wage those cultural battles.
“What I love about Mark and Amber is they’re bold storytellers,” Beckwith said then. “They tell the truth and what is going on. Culture wars are a real thing. And so as campus pastor here, as lieutenant governor, it is an honor … to boldly proclaim biblical truth into the culture. That means in education, in politics, in family life and media. That’s all about God’s truth.”
Fearless Features, founded by the Archers in 2017, produces documentaries that promote conservative positions on topics such as abortion, gender identity, education and law, with each film framed around what they describe as “a biblical worldview.”
Their titles include “Inwood Drive,” which recounts the 2019 discovery of more than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains in the garage of Indiana’s Ulrich “George” Klopfer, “The Mind Polluters,” about sexual education in schools, “Dysphoria,” which argues children are being inundated with a pro-transgender agenda, and “Title IX,” which accuses former President Joe Biden’s administration of promoting transgenderism in schools.
Former Attorney General Curtis Hill, who lost the Republican nomination for reelection in 2020 after his law license was suspended over allegations he groped women at a party, makes frequent appearances throughout the films.
The couple told The Indiana Citizen that they see their films as a “breadcrumb trail of truth” for future generations, even as they face challenges in securing traditional distribution or church support.
“Honestly, it’s prayer and Scripture that lead us,” Amber Archer said. “The themes fall into place: life, innocence, identity, law, and now truth itself. That’s where our next project, “Principalities,” is going.”
The Archers credit Beckwith and Life Church with giving them one of their first platforms. In 2021, the church screened “The Mind Polluters” and later premiered “Dysphoria” and “Title IX.”
“Micah has been one of the few who will actually stand up and say, ‘Yeah, we’ll show this,’” Amber said. “He’s not afraid to platform it.”
However, some Fearless Features’ films have drawn criticism from education experts and advocates, particularly for the way they portray schools and cultural issues. “The Mind Polluters,” released in 2022, depicts public education as a system that “grooms” children through sex education, social-emotional learning, and access to certain books.
When the Texas Freedom Coalition, along with Texas state Senator Bob Hall, a Republican, hosted a screening of the film in 2022, it was criticized for not including interviews with current public school teachers, administrators or child development specialists.
But as the film reached new audiences, education leaders told the Nebraska Examiner the film is “filled with falsehoods” and excludes voices from active teachers, administrators, and child development experts. Nebraska State Education Association president Jenni Benson called it “pure propaganda,” while David Jespersen, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Department of Education, said the claims were “detrimental to society.”
Experts have also challenged specific assertions in the Archers’ films. “The Mind Polluters” states that every person is biologically either male or female, a claim at odds with scientific research showing that intersex traits occur in up to 1.7% of the population. The film further suggests that transgender identity stems from trauma or confusion, and that children’s natural aversion to sex can prevent abuse—positions contradicted by established public health data. Critics argue that these inaccuracies risk stigmatizing LGBTQ+ people and undermining trust in educators and schools.
Despite such criticism, Beckwith has embraced the Archers’ work, framing their message as part of a broader spiritual struggle. For him, supporting the couple aligns with a recurring theme in his sermons: that cultural disputes over education, sexuality, and public life are ultimately spiritual battles.
“My only encouragement to people here is to recognize God created you for the day of battle,” Beckwith told the crowd in July referencing Ephesians 6. “Put on the full armor of God … Now here’s the enemy. Don’t be afraid of it. What have you been preparing for?”
Fearless Features’ current project, “Principalities,” aims to tie together the themes of their earlier films, portraying cultural conflicts as manifestations of deeper spiritual struggles.
“Scripture says we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,” Amber said. “That’s what we’re showing in this film. And at the end of the day, it’s about pointing people back to Christ.”
Following the July screening at Life Church, The Indiana Citizen spoke with Mark and Amber Archer about their filmmaking process, the challenges of finding audiences beyond theaters, and how they view their work in relation to broader cultural and spiritual debates. This interview was edited for length.
Question: Tell me a little bit about your production company, and how you got started making these films?
MARK ARCHER: We started as a nonprofit to do specifically these documentaries that we’ve been doing, starting with “Inwood Drive.” But before that, I have … 35-plus years doing film and television production. So I’ve done feature films, theatrical, broadcast, television, all that stuff in the past.
But when we started working on the first film that we started doing as a ministry, it was “Inwood Drive.” And we knew, because of the subject matter, it was going to be hard to get people to support as a commercial venture. And so, and that’s not why you do something like that — you do it because it’s a story that needs to be told. And so we started Fearless Features as a nonprofit, and that was in 2017.
Q: How do you choose the subject matter for your documentaries?
AMBER ARCHER: A lot of prayer. I mean, a lot of times, Mark and I get up early and we read Scripture together. … Honestly, it’s how “Inwood Drive” got started. We were literally sitting at our kitchen table having coffee. It was 3:30 in the morning, and we were reading together and studying, and then at the end of it, just praying about it. And I kind of looked at Mark, and I said, “I really feel like we’re supposed to be doing movies.” And he looked at me and he said, “It’s funny you say that, the Lord’s been working on me too,” because he walked away from filmmaking and sold all of his equipment and went back to college. So he was out of anything production-related for three years, went back to college, finished his engineering degree, and college was coming to a close.
MARK: When I walked away from it before … it was because I had a firm conviction that what I was doing was not honoring the Lord. So I just finally quit, and I said, I want to start over — I was not intending to come back at all. But then things happened, and the Lord was really convicting me that this was something that he wanted me to do. And I love filmmaking. It’s what I’ve done since I was in high school. And so coming back to it was kind of kicking and screaming, but I made a commitment to the Lord that I would only come back to it if what I was doing was going to be honoring to him. And so that has, more than anything, has shaped the direction of the kinds of projects that we’ve done.
Q: How has your process for making and distributing these films evolved over the years?
AMBER: Well, they’ve each been different. “Inwood Drive” was released in 2020 when everything shut down and we were literally getting ready to put money down for a theatrical release, and everything shut down. So we quickly had to pivot, like many studios did, and said, “OK, we’re going to take it to streaming.” And it went online. So “Inwood Drive” is on Amazon Prime, and “The Mind Polluters” is on Amazon Prime after three and a half years of trying to get that out and distributed. “Dysphoria” and “Title IX” are currently available on our website.
This process, making the films, it’s donor funded, so we can only go as far as many people know that we’re working on a project and they’re willing to help.
MARK: I knew from my time in the industry before, that this is a really hard sell, right? It’s something that needs to be said, and somebody who’s in a position to be able to do it, needs to just do it. And so me, having gotten out, and then coming back in, I had divorced myself of all of that kind of career image, if you will, that I had built up over those years. So to come back, I just went, “I just don’t even care anymore, I’m here to obey the Lord, here to serve. So let’s get it on.” So what we found is just getting this kind of these kinds of films out is a challenge.
AMBER: That’s why churches are so important. Churches who are willing to take a bold stand and talk about the issues and actually inform their communities and the area around them has been really monumental in helping get these films out. But sadly, more than not, people are not willing to show the films.
MARK: I can tell you what the pattern has been after the 2024 election — suddenly, things shifted. We had been de-platformed, banned. We were banned from Amazon. We were de-platformed from Vimeo. I mean, just for doing the films that we had violated community standards. I mean, the suppression was everywhere.
And then the election happened, and suddenly, bang, I went, “Well, I’m just gonna try.” So I resubmitted to Amazon, next thing we know, it’s on and we’re going, “OK, something changed here because we didn’t re-edit the film. We just submitted it again.” And geopolitically, something has obviously shifted. … Every one of them has been a different challenge. So we’re grateful for churches like Life Church, because Micah was the first pastor to show “The Mind Polluters” and then we did a big premiere of “Dysphoria” there. And then you just saw “Title IX.” So it’s been, it comes down to the individuals, the individual pastors, who are bold enough to say, “Yeah, we’ll, we’ll bring that here.”
Q: When did you form a relationship with Micah Beckwith and begin showing your films at Life Church? And what has that been like?
AMBER: It was actually through a grassroots organization that introduced us to Life Church and said, “Hey, can we have a screening?” It was the fall of 2021 because we released “The Mind Polluters” in 2022. That’s when it really took off. So it was grassroots, it was individuals who were involved and already knew the church and the things that they were willing to talk about, and churches that are willing to talk about the issues are really important.
Q: Can you put into words why you make these films and what you hope people take away from watching them?
AMBER: Well, for families, for truth, and for generations. I mean, you have to be able to share truth and point people back to Christ. When we got done with “The Mind Polluters,” people told us that we needed to take all of the references of Jesus out of the film. And it was too biblical, too many scriptures. And that’s why we’re independently funded through donations, is because we’re not afraid to tell people the truth.
As Christians, we are image bearers, and we’re supposed to go out into the world and share the truth. And if we’re the ones who have the truth, there has to be a way to share that. So we’re just using a different medium to share truth with people, and just point people back to Christ.
When we got done with “Dysphoria,” we had a national Christian organization tell us that we needed to remove all references of Satan. And just like, “Sorry, we can’t do that, because we have to stay, obedient to the Lord and what he’s called us to do, and not be afraid of what man is judging us for.” People need to hear the truth, and so that’s really it comes down to just truth, and these films are going to be around long after we are gone from this earth. And so just being able to leave some sort of breadcrumb for someone to find, you know, later down the road, it’ll live on past us, and just being able to speak that truth into not only this generation, but helping parents rise up and and protect their families. Really, the nuclear family is the strongest defense against the corruption of the world.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the film that you are currently working on, “Principalities,” that you showed the preview of? What is that film going to be about?
MARK: We’re still in early development. So what we showed … was the beginnings of the direction that we want to go with it. If you watch “The Mind Polluters,” “Dysphoria” and “Title IX” and then “Principalities” is kind of a top layer where we back everybody out and show them that’s really what’s behind all this, is spiritual warfare.
So when you talk about “Principalities,” you’re talking about biblically, what it says in Ephesians about who our struggle is really against and who really is behind all this. Everything is a spiritual battle, one way or the other. So that’s what “Principalities” is, to show all of this now from the biblical worldview of the big picture of what really is happening. And again, point people to Christ. … Now you’ve seen all this that’s being done. Don’t fret, because what’s behind it all is exactly what Christ told us was behind it all. It’s all spiritual. But you don’t have to be afraid. He told us not to be afraid of it.
AMBER: Suit up, Christians. … All of these issues — people have to understand what’s going on. We are living in a reality, and we can’t keep covering our eyes to things and pretend that things are going to get better. It won’t get better unless we get involved.
Sydney Byerly is a political reporter who grew up in New Albany, Indiana. Before joining The Citizen, Sydney reported news for TheStatehouseFile.com and most recently managed and edited The Corydon Democrat & Clarion News in southern Indiana. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism at Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism (‘Sco Griz!).
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
