Longwood University
11/10/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/11/2025 10:45
Alumna’s film delivers emotional story of family’s quest to bring home soldier shot down in World War II
The Virginia premiere of Path to Heaven is set for 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, at Longwood's High Street Theatre. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with filmmaker Amy Tardy Perez '05.
Filmmaker Amy Tardy Perez '05 has one primary criteria for a project: The story behind it must speak to her heart.
No doubt her latest project will speak to the hearts of many people-especially veterans and their families.
It is a documentary that tells the story of 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr. and the 10 other B-24 crew members who lost their lives when they were shot down in 1944 over Hansa Bay on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The documentary also tells the story of how Kelly's extended family came together in a united effort to find out what happened on that fateful mission during World War II. But they didn't stop there. They wanted to find the plane, named Heaven Can Wait, and then, against all odds, they dreamed of bringing Tommy home.
Perez's film, Path to Heaven , artfully and emotionally captures the family's 11-year effort in just 22 minutes.
It all started on Memorial Day 2013, when Scot Althaus, a distant cousin of Kelly's and an academic researcher already immersed in a World War II project, decided to act on a vague memory of a family member's headstone he had seen years earlier in a Livermore, California, cemetery. It bore a name unknown to him at that time, the outline of an airplane and an inscription: "… Killed on Active Service at New Guinea Mar. 11, 1944."
He shared the information with his mother, who contacted other members of the family. From there interest snowballed, and years of research ensued, resulting in the probable location of the crash site. At that point, Project Recover, a nonprofit organization that partners with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to locate remains of U.S. MIAs and POWs, became involved. The plane was located, and DPAA divers remarkably recovered human remains that had been under 213 feet of water for more than 80 years. Project Recover reported it was the deepest-water recovery ever of human remains. Some of those remains were identified as belonging to Kelly in November 2024, and the family was able to have a formal funeral.
Of course, that brief synopsis doesn't begin to do justice to the emotion and depth of this story. To feel the full impact, you'd have to see Perez's film.
It's crazy what it will do to a family when you lose someone and you grow up with this ghost. But when you can fill that void by bringing their loved one home ... it feels like a completion.
Amy Tardy Perez '05"It's crazy what it will do to a family when you lose someone and you grow up with this ghost," she said. "People grow up with these holes in their families. Tommy's family members don't know why they felt such a strong connection. You can't miss something you never had."
"But when you can fill that void by bringing their loved one home, and family members are able to stand there in the shoes of others who have already passed away, it feels like a completion."
Path to Heaven is the second documentary Perez and her husband, Chris Perez, have done in cooperation with Project Recover through their company, Media Evolve, which they founded in 2020. It is especially meaningful for both of them. Chris is a career Navy diver and photographer (now retired) and was one of the divers who brought up remains from the crash site in Hansa Bay. As a military wife, Amy empathizes with the loss of a loved one during military service.
"This film had an energy of its own. One fact of remembrance ignited a series of events that led to locating the plane and the remains of four of the 11 crew members," she said, adding that she conducted and filmed all of the interviews; pulled together B-roll, archive images, and footage; and edited the final film.
The Perezes are looking forward to their next film with Project Recover, which is already in the initial stages. "We were supposed to be in the Pacific right now, but the government shutdown opened up our schedule," said Amy-but she's happy that meant she can be at Longwood for the screening and discussion session for Path to Heaven on Nov. 14.
A sociology major at Longwood because of her interest in people, Perez has reinvented herself several times since then-from high-school English teacher to working in the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, to a master's degree in biology and interning with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Now she feels that she is finally doing the work she was born to do, and it's a bonus that she gets to do it with her husband.
"We're in a really good position that we are able to live our dream. Even when I was a kid, I thought that if I could do anything in the world, I would be a documentary filmmaker, travel the world and have access to incredible people and incredible stories."
Path to Heaven will be making the circuit of film festivals/competitions for the next year, but should be available to view on the Project Recover website close to Veterans Day 2026.
We're in a really good position that we are able to live our dream. Even when I was a kid, I thought that if I could do anything in the world, I would be a documentary filmmaker, travel the world and have access to incredible people and incredible stories.
Amy Tardy Perez '05"We're in a really good position that we are able to live our dream. Even when I was a kid, I thought that if I could do anything in the world, I would be a documentary filmmaker, travel the world and have access to incredible people and incredible stories."
Path to Heaven will be making the circuit of film festivals/competitions for the next year, but should be available to view on the Project Recover website close to Veterans Day 2026.
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