CONCEPT

Finding the Words is a documentary feature film that follows non-speaking teenagers as they come of age and navigate their high school experience. Blending immersive, vérité-style portraits chronicling the critical years of our adolescent characters’ lives, this film is an intimate, personal story about the joys and pains of growing up — but told through a non-speaking lens.

The opposite sex. Surviving high school. Dealing with an awkward, changing body. Our film explores these eternal, uniquely teenage rites of passage. In documenting how our characters overcome their circumstances, we’ll learn about the diverse set of challenges that non-speaking individuals face.

Shedding light on a rarely-seen perspective, Finding the Words is a platform for our characters to communicate, and for their voices to be heard. This story will give a voice to a segment of the population that, quite literally, doesn’t have one.

NON-SPEAKING

There isn’t any one reason why a person is non-speaking. It could be due to a disability, like cerebral palsy, autism, or dyspraxia. An individual might have limited motor function of their tongue, making it impossible to sound out words. Others, like Stephen Hawking and Steve Gleason, lost their voice in adulthood as a result of a degenerative illness like ALS.

About 1.3% of the US population relies on AAC as their primary means of communication. AAC (an acronym for “alternative and augmentative communication”) comes in a wide variety of forms — writing, sign language, alphabet boards, gestures, and speech-generating devices. In fact, we all use AAC every single day, whenever we send an email or text message. Emojis are AAC. Even giving the middle finger to the jerk in the BMW who cut you off on the freeway… that’s AAC.

TONE

As our teenage subjects make sense of the world, we’re right there along for the ride to discover what life is like for them. We are a mirror for their voices. We are their faithful diary. Our characters will be completely open and vulnerable with us. As filmmakers, we are their co-conspirator and confidant — a best friend to brag to and a safe space to vent.

Our characters will meet people on their journey who don’t have the patience to communicate with them. Finding the Words will not bog itself down in our characters disabilities. Rather, we will celebrate their abilities to tell a story full of heart, humor, wonder, hope, and imagination.

KATIE

Katie Reinertson (13) describes herself as “smart and funny and sweet and fast at running.” She loves her weekly dance class, braiding hair, going to summer camp… and dislikes school because she doesn’t like homework. Her first crush is a boy she met at camp named Leo, who also uses an AAC device, and she told her dad that Leo is her boyfriend.

The second of four siblings, she quarrels with her younger brother all the time, but she’s still a good sister who gives amazing hugs. When she gets older, she wants to be a hairdresser. [When I asked her how she would style my long, messy hair, she replied: “Cut it all off.”] The last thing Katie would tell you about herself is that she’s non-speaking. She’s been using a “talker,” as she calls it, for as long as she can remember.

Katie is in seventh grade, and the only kid at her junior high who uses a device. She lives in a small, blue-collar town in northwest Michigan, so people know her as the kid who uses a device to speak. Her talker makes her feel different. She doesn’t have a single friend in her hometown who uses an AAC device, and she really wishes she did. Classmates make fun of her sometimes when she’s trying to talk, mimicking her as if using a device of their own. She hasn’t been invited to any birthday parties at school this year.

Her dad owns a towing company, so he’s on the road a lot. In the winter, he doesn’t see his family, on account of all the cars he’s pulling out of the deep Michigan snow. Katie has learned to become independent, and she does a lot for herself. She sets her own watch alarm for 6:15 a.m., wakes up and gets ready, and pours a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Her muscles are still a little shaky in the morning, so her cereal sometimes falls off the spoon.

When Katie was 18 months old, she had a seizure that stunted the development of her motor skills. This included her tongue muscles, which is why Katie can’t vocalize speech. It also affected her gait, and she limps a bit when she walks. Katie takes the bus to and from school, eats a snack when she gets home and does some chores, then goes to her room to listen to the radio or watch TV. She doesn’t ever have friends over to her house, and sometimes it can get lonely.

Soon enough, Katie herself will be entering the high school gauntlet. In a town with a population barely over 10,000, her only option is Cadillac High School, the town’s lone public school. She’s excited about getting older, and all of the responsibility that comes with it. But she’s nervous about the extra school work, and keeping up with her neurotypical peers. Again, she’ll be the only kid at school with a talker. She finds herself wondering… “Will I fit in?”

The one thing Katie can’t wait for is her yearly dance recital. Every spring, her dance group takes the stage to an adoring audience of family and friends. Aside from summer camp (when she gets to see her maybe-boyfriend Leo), it’s her favorite time of year.

COLE

Cole Kenworthy, a sophomore at a neurotypical highschool in the suburbs of Philadelphia, is like any other sixteen-year old boy. He loves playing sports (he’s on the Bocce Special Olympics Team), watching cartoons, and goofing around with his buddies. He describes himself as “silly with his friends and family, brave with doing new things, and helpful to his friends when they want help.” He does his after-school chores to earn an allowance, though he hates mowing the lawn on weekends. He loves his dog, a two-year-old boxer named Ruby. He loves to travel, and his family visits the Jersey Shore every summer. He never misses watching Survivor on Wednesdays.

He’s a bit self-conscious about his braces, and the acne on his face, but even more self-conscious about the fact that he uses an AAC device to communicate. He gets embarrassed when people see him using it in public. Cole has apraxia, low muscle tone, and poor motor planning and movement, all of which make it impossible for him to speak. So he learned sign language around two years old, and a talker at age four. Cole prefers sign language, but his family was discouraged from relying on it as he got older because the general public would not be able to understand him.

Cole has many daily struggles. Anything he needs to do with his hands is a challenge — turning pages, opening containers, even using his device. It’s hard for Cole to eat and drink. Writing things out is difficult for him, which makes his schoolwork extra time-consuming. Yet despite the almost constant hardship, Cole always has a positive attitude and a smile on his face.

Medical issues that would affect a neurotypical kid for a few days stick with Cole for much longer. He’s had pneumonia several times, as well as sinus problems and gastrointestinal issues. These illnesses set his studying back weeks at a time, putting a strain on his quality of life and ongoing education.

Cole has big plans for the future. He wants to live independently one day, so he’d like to get a part-time job for now to start building his résumé. After he graduates, he’s planning on continuing his education at college and pursuing a career. But like most kids his age, he’s not sure yet what that career will be. Joining the workforce is one of the critical issues facing AAC users. A 2007 study found that only 15% of adult AAC users are employed, and Cole aspires to be part of that percentile.

Beyond finishing school, there’s one thing that Cole can’t stop thinking about — getting his own personalized voice for his talker. Even though his voice won’t change in the traditional sense, his parents are waiting for Cole to finish puberty before investing in a customized adult voice for his device. Through a process called vocal banking, a company called VocaliD will sample the guttural sounds that Cole can make, combine it with samples of his father’s voice, and blend them together to create a unique voice for Cole. Voice is identity, and Cole can’t wait to solidify who he is, for all the world to hear.

The building blocks of Finding the Words are scenes about teenage rites of passage, with the conclusion building towards our characters undergoing transformative life experiences. We’ll feature an ensemble cast of three characters, ranging in age and socio-economic backgrounds. We have two subjects cast — Katie (13) and Cole (16) — and are casting for the third subject now. Though linked thematically, our subjects will not meet in real life, and their stories will be woven together to tell the larger narrative.

Katie will struggle her way through junior high, eyes on the high school prize. And as much as she will have to push herself to get there, with so many more challenges still lying ahead, Katie will learn how strong she is, and that she can overcome any adversity.

We meet Cole as a sophomore, right in the thick of the high school jungle. As he begins to add more responsibilities in his life — like landing a part-time job and applying for college — the pressure will mount. But Cole will beat his obstacles, like he always does, with the patience and courage he’s always had inside of him. His storyline will conclude with him finally receiving a unique voice made just for him — the voice Cole’s always dreamed of having.

The following are comparable features, which collectively represent the subjects, tone, narrative, and approximate execution for Finding the Words.

Dina

Billed as a "real-life romantic comedy,” Dina (2017 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner) is a very funny, very romantic film about the courtship and marriage of a couple on the autism spectrum. The couple's disabilities are never the focus of the story; rather, this is a film about the importance of being vulnerable and opening yourself up to love, disability or not.

Eighth Grade

A film about coming of age in an instant-gratification culture, where social media and technology account for much of our personal interactions. This is an interesting contrast to our subject in Finding the Words, whose use of technology is non-elective and requires the utmost patience to engage with others.

Gleason

Featuring a lead subject who uses AAC to communicate, this film is an emotional powerhouse. It shows a character overcoming incredible adversity as they struggle, grow, and triumph. We hope the same journeys' for ours.

The Breakfast Club

A classic John Hughes coming-of-age story full of humor, pain, and heart. As five high school students from completely different worlds band together to serve their Saturday detention, they discover that the alienation they feel towards the world is the very thing that binds them together.

The spark for Finding the Words came from a chance encounter with a non-speaking teenager at the Grand Canyon. Out stargazing one night, Christopher met the family of Ben, a sixteen-year old AAC-user. Their conversation continued to the topic of Camp ALEC, a literacy-focused summer camp in Michigan for kids who are non-speaking.

In August 2018, production spent four days at camp gathering footage and interviews for what would become the Kennedy-Marshall produced documentary short, Camp ALEC. Aside from showcasing this incredible camp, our hope was to establish strong ties with the AAC community as a path to making this feature film. Camp ALEC premiered in August 2019 at the Traverse City Film Festival, and has since screened at over eight film festivals and counting. The twenty-minute short also received the Award of Excellence at the 2019 Catalina Film Festival and Honorable Mention Award at the 2019 Ojai Film Festival. And most importantly, it was at Camp ALEC where the production team met Katie and Cole, who were campers.

CHRISTOPHER STOUDT

DIRECTOR / PRODUCER

Christopher Stoudt is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, originally from New Orleans, now based in Los Angeles. He is co-creator of the documentary web-series 60 Second Docs, which is the #1 publisher of original documentary content on Facebook. His work with the series has over 700 million views online. In 2018, he was nominated for a Los Angeles Emmy for Outstanding Director for his full-length documentary, Lost LA: Descanso Gardens. His films have been screened at festivals, gone viral, and received hundreds of millions of views online. He has been featured on Huffington Post, Billboard Magazine, ATTN:, and Funny or Die. In his previous role as an Extras Casting Director, he worked with Quentin Tarantino, Seth Rogen, Diablo Cody, and Alejandro Iñárritu.

STEEN WICHMANN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Steen is a Los Angeles-based writer/producer. His career has yielded commercial writing and producing credits for Netflix, Apple, HBO, Showtime, Lionsgate, Participant Media, Huff Post, Adobe, Mercedes, and Ford. He was most recently a Supervising Producer for ATTN: Entertainment that Informs, co-managing it's editorial, branded content and animation-based teams. In addition to staff-producing, he produces independent and documentary projects and is actively developing a slate of short and feature-length films. Steen currently serves as an Executive Producer for TubeScience, an ad agency located in downtown Los Angeles.

CHANCE DURAN

COMPOSER

Chance F. Duran is an Emmy-nominated composer for film and television. As the sole composer of the popular web-series 60 Second Docs, he has scored hundreds of episodes and his work has received over a billion views online. In 2018, he was nominated for a Los Angeles Emmy for his KCET feature Lost LA: Descanso Gardens. His commercial clients include AT&T, Chipotle, Focus Features, Fox, Duplass Brothers Productions, BlackRock, and Mike’s Hard Lemonade.