“Cut!” The director bellows. The harsh, bright white light shines down on his face, illuminating it like a ghost. The voices of young actors giddily fill the room, discussing the scene they had just filmed. Looking to their left, they can see Marx Field and various students walking around, enjoying the nice day.

Although this may sound like a dream, something that would never occur at WHHS, in reality, this is the filming of “Hear 2 Heal,” a musical highlighting mental health and the high school experience, with multiple scenes filmed at WHHS on Sunday, Sept. 15.
“The main message is that we’re all connected by love,” Vikki Brown, the writer and producer of the film, said. “Just to be able to find the positive parts in life each day, you get a new start. Each day you can do something new.”

The plot directly reflects the stressful lives of teenage high schoolers. It specifically highlights bullying, suicide, lockdowns and the turbulence associated with young love.

“All those things are universal; they’ve happened for 100 years,” Brown said. “Everyone, even the adults and grandparents, are going to be able to identify with the stories that are in there because it happens all the time.”

The film includes 15 songs written by Eliot Sloan, who is a part of the multi-platinum alternative rock band from the 90s called Blessid Union of Souls, best known for their hit “I Believe.” Brown first got introduced to Sloan by working for the Reds Rookie Success League, which is an introductory league for youth interested in playing baseball or softball.

“Eliot had written 13 songs when they opened the Great American Ballpark, so I had asked him if we could use five of those songs on a CD to give to the kids in their goodie bags at the end of the six weeks. So that’s when we met Eliot,” Brown said.
“Hear 2 Heal” first started as a school concert in 2012 where students sang songs written by Sloan, and it was produced in multiple schools throughout the Cincinnati area. However, Sloan was having trouble getting it into high schools due to the wide variety of formats for each song.

“I said [to Eliot] ‘Oh, you have to write a play,’ and he said, ‘Vikki, I don’t write plays; I write songs.’ So I said, ‘Alright, you write your number one songs and I’ll do the play.’ And I don’t know where that came from, but it just came out. So then I started getting a lot of ideas,” Brown said.

For the next nine years, the idea for a “Hear 2 Heal” movie marinated in the back of Brown’s mind but never came to fruition. However, in 2019, tragedy struck when a series of student suicides occurred in Cincinnati schools, including the death of a student at WHHS.

“My why is Ben Kimble. He was the second student [at] Turpin High School to die in one week and I’m a personal friend of his parents,” Brown said. “So I texted Eliot that morning and I said, ‘This is happening. This is happening now. We have to do this.’ That was my passion. Just because of that tragic event, it put me on the path of doing and getting it done.”

A flurry of activity ensued; this past year, “Hear 2 Heal” finally started being filmed throughout the Cincinnati area. Luckily, with the help of WHHS orchestra teacher and head of the music department John Caliguri, WHHS was chosen to be one of the last locations filmed at.

“John Caliguri and I went to elementary, junior high and high school together,’ Brown said. “I reached out to John and asked him if he would be interested, [and] if we would be able to use Walnut, and he said yes. He was so willing and everyone here has been so accepting, and we feel so welcome here.”

A call then went out to WHHS students a few days prior to the filming in search of extras. Aniya Jenkins, ‘25, decided to become an extra.

Although Jenkins did not have many moments of stardom, overall she enjoyed the process.

“I was a student extra, so I just sat there for a lot of it,” Jenkins said. “I got one close-up shot where I was told to look sad. I was mostly sitting and we did a walk-in scene a couple of times.”

Jenkins also notes that the cast was all extremely welcoming, which resulted in an easy and amicable bond. Jenkins has one specific memory that highlights this comradery.

“This scene they shot was really sad; people were crying and then they called cut and everybody started cracking up,” Jenkins said. “It was the best thing ever; super deep and then it got super hysterical the next minute.”

This is not the first time that WHHS students were extras in a movie. In 1981, Johnny Cash filmed “the Pride of Jesse Hallam” at WHHS. Another group of stars that filmed at WHHS were Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews and Fredric March, who starred in “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1946, winning seven total Academy Awards.

One student extra who participated in the track meet scene in “the Pride of Jesse Hallam” was chemistry teacher Kim VonBargen, who attended WHHS from 1980-1986. VonBargen remembers that the students had a normal pep rally that was filmed and edited to look like the students cheering at a track meet.

“The producers and directors of the show came on and spoke to us about the movie and they explained that they were going to use our pep rally as the fans at the track meet for the movie,” VonBargen said. “They had us practice screaming and cheering and jumping up and down. We had to do it without making any noise because they had a soundtrack to put over. So [there are] several takes of us jumping up and down without making any noise and acting like we’re screaming.”

“The Pride of Jesse Hallam” tells the story of an illiterate man who learns to read and write in order to support his family, containing messages about real-world problems.

“I think that it is applicable to current life,” VonBargen said. “We have a lot of, not necessarily poverty and illiteracy, but we have the English language learners in our community now, [and] that’s affecting education.”

Both “the Pride of Jesse Hallam” and “Hear 2 Heal” demonstrate a theme of impactful movies being filmed at WHHS. Whether spreading awareness of illiteracy or discussing mental health, both movies aim to leave a lasting impression on the viewers. Jenkins further notes that she hopes that “Hear 2 Heal” will educate the community regarding mental health. 

“I hope it teaches people to reach out more and to check in on [their] friends and when they do start to feel alone, if you feel alone, reach out to people,” Jenkins said. “I hope they feel inspired to be better people, to bring more positivity into the world and to be more aware of other people’s dreams.”