Matt Ogens knew he wanted to make a film about the football team at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick. The director just didn’t know it would take more than a decade for it to come together — and that he’d be okay with that.
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“I’m so glad it took 12 years,” Ogens said over a video call from California. “If it didn't, I wouldn’t have met Amaree.”
Amaree is Amaree McKenstry-Hall, the compelling central figure in Ogens’s film, “Audible.” It’s nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary short.
Born in Baltimore and raised by a single mother, McKenstry-Hall plays center on the school’s football team, which has been a perennial powerhouse but starts the film on shaky ground.
Ogens grew up in the Washington area and graduated from the Bullis School in Potomac. His best friend is deaf, and an aunt is an American Sign Language interpreter. For a while, she worked at the Frederick school, which has been educating deaf and hard-of-hearing people since 1868.
“I always knew I wanted to tell a coming-of-age story,” Ogens said. “I always knew I wanted to tell it through the point of view of a senior. What that meant was that every year I had to look for a new lead character, a new subject.”
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He found the right one. McKenstry-Hall is charismatic — and conflicted. He knows this is his last chance to shine in high school sports, but he suffers crushing losses, both on the field and off.
He knows he’ll soon be leaving the protective bubble of a community where everyone understands ASL and entering a wider world where few people sign.
“They are just speaking,” he explained in the video call. “I’m in a space where I don’t know what anybody is talking about. I’m not included. I just feel like a dog, helplessly staring at these mouths moving in silence.”
That can happen even when he’s with his family, most of whom don’t sign.
McKenstry-Hall and his friends are candid in the film, letting Ogens and his crew follow them from the locker room to the cafeteria to parties.
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“Matt had said to me, ‘Just be yourself, don't get caught up in it,’” McKenstry-Hall explained. “So I tried to convince myself to focus on my studies and my schooling and being an athlete until I graduated.”
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And when he finally saw “Audible”?
“When I was watching it, I felt like I had a long-lost twin,” he said. “Of course, it was me, but it was kind of surreal to see myself in the film. It was such a worthy experience. There was nothing I felt I should have kept in or kept secret. I was happy to be vulnerable and open up.”
“Audible” isn’t the only Oscar-nominated film addressing issues in the deaf community. Said Ogens: “It’s really historic: a narrative film, ‘CODA,’ and a documentary, ‘Audible,” both with different points of view of the deaf experience.”
“Audible” ends with … well, you’ll just have to see for yourself. (It’s on Netflix.) It definitely made me want to know what the young people we’d met have been up to since 2019.
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McKenstry-Hall is 21. He lives in St. Paul, Minn., where he is hoping to get a spot on a community college football team.
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“I have so many more things I want to be doing,” he said.
That includes setting up a YouTube channel to highlight his acting and his comedy. And perhaps he’ll stream himself playing video games. (“I am a pro with video games,” he said.)
Earlier this month, McKenstry-Hall flew to California to attend the Oscar nominees’ lunch with Ogens. He met Will Smith, Denzel Washington and other actors.
“This guy worked the room,” Ogens said.
“I love engaging with people, lifting people up. It’s part of my personality,” McKenstry-Hall said.
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He introduced himself to Benedict Cumberbatch, too. The British actor asked McKenstry-Hall to show him how to say “Save Ukraine” in ASL.
Early in “Audible,” the football coach, Ryan Bonheyo, implores his players not to let their opponents get inside their heads. It struck me as a metaphor: The hearing world may be as unforgiving as any opposing team. The students mustn’t let themselves be beat by it.
“Yes,” said McKenstry-Hall. “That was such a perfect comparison there, because if I was to get denied a job or denied an opportunity and gave up, that would not be okay. It’s important to stand up and stick up for what you deserve and to break through those barriers. … It’s important to not allow the deaf community to be held down.”