For almost 40 years, actress Marlee Matlin has shown how what some may consider a disability can actually be turned into a strength. Winner in 1986 Oscar for Best Actress for her stellar turn in “Children of a Lesser God,” Matlin became the first deaf performer to receive such an award and quickly rose to represent the deaf community at large, promoting the implantation of captioning and serving as a celebrity ambassador for the disabled rights with the ACLU. Her film and television career has also continued to flourish, recently participating in the 2022 Best Picture winning family drama “CODA.” In honor of her work, American Masters at PBS commissioned one documentary on her life, but before Matlin agreed to sign, Matlin had some conditions.
“I was approached by American Masters on PBS to make a movie about my life and I said, ‘Sure, absolutely,’ and I have one condition though that it has to be directed by a deaf person, a deaf director, a woman , Matlin said in an interview at Sundancepp IndieWire Studio presented by Dropbox. “And so I offered Shoshanna’s name. And hers was the only name and the rest is basically history.”
Like Matlin, Shoshannah Stern is a hearing-impaired actress, but their connection goes much deeper than that. Both trained at the International Center of Deafness, the Arts & Education (ICODA), where a chance meeting brought them together forever.
“I had won a competition and then I went to ICODA and it was the first time I was away from my family,” Stern told IndieWire. “I was feeling very alone and I went to ICODA and there was this woman. She just glowed. She just had this aura of warmth. She came right up to me and she took me under her wing and adopted me for the day, and it was Libby Matlin, and it was Marlee’s mom. And then I just felt like our lives had intertwined.”
Stern’s hope in making the documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” is to not only highlight what deaf artists have to face, but to make something “as beautiful and as powerful” as its subject. Likewise, Matlin hopes people watch more than just a story about her life and career.
“I hope people will watch this film, listen, see and give other people in the deaf community the opportunity to do what they want to do, what they deserve to have in their lives,” she said.
Stern echoed this sentiment, pointing to the work Matlin has done as not only beneficial to the deaf, but to everyone.
“When they had to install curb ramps, everybody was like, ‘Why? Why do we have to do it? But now we all carry suitcases, we all have strollers,” Stern said. “Everyone uses the curb ramps. Accessibility builds a better world, and it’s really time we stopped resisting.”
“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. American Masters via PBS will air the documentary later this year.
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