The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival is a yearly event featuring many great features from around the world. Learn more about MSP Films and how to submit your feature for next year https://mspfilm.org/
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (MSPIFF 44)
Cast: Marlee Matlin, Henry Winkler
Director: Shoshannah Stern
Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for her work in Children of a Lesser God in 1986. At the time she was the only deaf person to receive an award for acting(until Troy Kostur won for his work in Coda in 2021) After her Oscar win, Marlee became the poster person for a lot of deaf people around the world. Being tasked with this responsiblity at such a young age has giving this woman success but also a lot of stress as well.
Even if you are unfamiliar with the roles she has portrayed. Marlee Matlin has had a big presence in the film community. If you haven’t seen her in films like The Linguini Incident or the Oscar winner, Coda. You may have seen her in episodes of Seinfeld, The West Wing, Switched at Birth , Nip/ Tuck and Family Guy. It’s just that many only know her as just being that one deaf actress.
When she was first diagnosed as being deaf at the age of one. Her parents did not know how to deal with it. After all in the 60’s there wasn’t any centers or professionals that deal with being hearing impaired So without any real communication between Marlee and her parents, she retreated to drug use. A problem she would deal with until after her break up with her lead co star of Childen of a Lesser God, Willam Hurt. She would later go to live at the home of the one man who helped her get into acting, Henry Winkler and his family.
After her Oscar win in 86, Marlee was not only awarded Best Actress. She was also given the task of being the sole spokesperson for all Deaf People. Being the public face has brought much needed attention to the community. She has helped get Closed Captioning a mandatory thing on all television sets and it’s a device even non hearing impaired people use. She also got into trouble with many inside her community for using her real voice,which is something she still does to this day. Many consider this to be insulting because it makes a lot of people think. Deaf people can talk, they just don’t want to.
What Shoshannah Stern does wonderfully with this documentary is that it never treats the topic of being deaf as a disability. The whole documentary is closed captioned including all the sounds and it adds a lot to the viewing. Despite some troubling things you learn about Marlee when watching this. You don't walk away thinking she is only a victim. She is an incredible human being that has a lot to say.
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