New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Football player Amaree McKenstry-Hall and his Maryland School for the Deaf teammates attempt to defend their winning streak while coming to terms with the tragic loss of a close friend. The graduating students face mounting pressures of entering the hearing world while tackling adversity and demanding to be heard in this moving coming-of-age story.
Audible, which was filmed last year before the COVID-19 pandemic and premiered last month at the Hot Docs Film Festival, follows high school football player Amaree McKenstry and his close friends as they face the pressures of senior year and grapple with the realities of venturing off into the hearing world. In the trailer that Netflix debuts exclusively with Observer, McKenstry and his teammates are forced to overcome a devastating loss that ends a 42-match winning streak, while also coming to terms with the tragic loss of a close friend named Teddy Webster.
"Rather than just doing a general film about being deaf where I interview experts, I wanted to tell what I call an immersive, audiovisual experience, so it felt like it was told through the point of view of a character," Ogens said. "This film is about Amaree and his relationships, but I hope, in some ways, he's an avatar for at least some aspects of the deaf experience for everyone."
While there are a wealth of stories to be told at the school, Ogens says he gravitated towards McKenstry after discovering that he had lost his hearing at the age of two or three and was the only deaf person in his family. As a result, Ogens has chosen to not only chronicle McKenstry's success on the football field but also his complicated and evolving relationships with his hearing parents and his cheerleading friends, Jalen Whitehurst and Lera Walkup.
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