Mueller-Medlicott used a special keyboarding technique and a voice synthesizer to deliver his lines in a play called "The Song That Greens the Earth" at the Progress Energy Center in Raleigh in November 2005. The play was produced by the Community Inclusive Theater Group, a Durham-based organization that helps handicapped young adults become involved in the theater.

"That was, like, our shining moment," said Polly Medlicott, Mueller-Medlicott's mother.

Mueller-Medlicott died unexpectedly of pneumonia in 2006, five months after the performance. He was 21.

Local filmmaker Kenny Dalsheimer, who has known the Mueller-Medlicott family for years, was moved and fascinated by the work of the Community Inclusive Theater Group. He is creating a documentary film, called "A New Kind of Listening," about it.

On Saturday, Dalsheimer will show a short clip from the film at a fundraising event for the documentary project at Main Street Gallery in Carrboro. "An Evening of Art and Magic" also will feature a performance by magician Josh Lozoff, a silent art auction, wine and hors d'ouvres.

Dalsheimer hopes to finish the film by early summer.

"The film will show that people who are non-speaking are able to be heard," Dalsheimer said.

Dalsheimer, a filmmaker and media educator, came to know the Mueller-Medlicott family when he taught Chris' older sister at Carolina Friends School. He began attending rehearsals of the Community Inclusive Theater Project, watching as formerly non-verbal young adults used keyboarding and voice synthesizing techniques to express themselves on stage as they worked to create "The Song That Greens the Earth."

The project was produced by Chapel Hill director Richard Reho, a longtime advocate for the disabled.

"I got kind of drawn in as I began to see what was happening," Dalsheimer said.

He spent months filming the group's rehearsals and performances, interviewing members of the ensemble and incorporating archival home movies.

After Mueller-Medlicott's death, Dalsheimer decided to edit the video to focus more on his experience.

"It's about Chris and how his life was changed and how he as a non-speaking person was able to be a part of this group and contribute to it," he said.

Polly Medlicott says her son was transformed by the experience.

"Chris just, like, blossomed," she said. "I couldn't believe the changes in him."

The formerly withdrawn young man had no way of communicating with the outside world until his mother enrolled him in a facilitated communication program at Syracuse University when he was 15.

Facilitated communication helps developmentally disabled people learn to type on a keyboard, receiving various degrees of aid in the process.

Mueller-Medlicott and the other cast members of the Community Inclusive Theater Group collaborated to write, rehearse and perform "The Song That Greens the Earth."

Medlicott said that writing his own lines gave Mueller-Medlicott a sense of purpose, an avenue for relaying his unique experiences to the outside world.

"He had something meaningful to talk about and contribute to," she said.

Dalsheimer says he hopes the documentary helps people overcome the assumption that non-verbal individuals have nothing to say.

"You have to listen quietly and be patient," he said, "and find new ways of communicating."