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DEAF BUT NOT DUMB (AUDIBLE)

Matthew Ogdens' 'Audible' celebrates the ordinary and the extraordinary.

It depicts teenagers in Maryland doing what teenagers in towns and cities across the United States do.

They attend high school.

They fret about their homecoming prom.

They play on the High School football team.

However the teenagers in Frederick, Maryland are anything but ordinary.

They attend Maryland High School for the Deaf and they are determined not to be looked down on or condescended by the rest of society.

At the start of Ogden's 39 minute Oscar nominated documentary short, the Maryland Orioles are getting thumped by another high school team from Texas.

Defeat comes after an extraordinary 42 match winning streak.

The opposition are getting in their heads and they are not handling it well.

Ogden's documentary short film focuses on Amaree McKenstry, a star player on the team who was born with the ability to hear but lost it when he contracted meningitis as a young boy.

Amarew only wears cochlear implants to listen to music which calms him down but even then, he says he cannot hear the lyrics.

On the football field, Amaree and his teammates can feel the vibrations of their pounding feet and those of the opposing squad.

Over the course of 'Audible,' we also see Amaree rekindle his relationship with his dad who walked out on the family when he was young.

His father reveals he was a heroin dealer but turned his back on crime through a local Baptist Church where he now preaches.

We meet Lena Walkup, a cheerleader at the school, who he's not sure he is dating or that he will be going to the homecoming with.

His best friend Jaden Whitehurst is also on the cheerleading team and is gay.

The students talk candidly about the sense of loss they feel over the suicide of another friend, Terry who lived with adopted parents and was in a relationship with Jaden.

Terry hung himself after moving to another high school where he was bullied because of his deafness.

Much of the dialogue and interviews in Ogden's cshort film are conducted with sign language and subtitles.

Only Amaree's divorced parents and Terry's adopted patents speak.

But the film is at its most impressive conveying the experience of playing in a high school football game or sancing if you are deaf.

Executive produced by the actor-director Peter Berg, Ogden:s cinematographer Billy Pena captures some striking images of the team giving their all during training and games, while Coach Ryan on the sidelines tries to keep them focused.

Darrin Roberts' film editing and Eric A Norris' sound department also expertly exploit the full potential of intermittently using sound to convey how the students experience life.

The big message from 'Audible' is that disability should never define who people are.

Nor should it define how others interact with them.

The world would be a much better place if we let people be who they want.

('Audible' was made available for streaming on Netflix on July 1, 2021)

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