Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore – Hot Docs 2025
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April 24 to May 4, 2025
Content Advisory: Rape and Sexual Assault, Abuse
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The career of trailblazing deaf actor Marlee Matlin is revisited in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore. In 1985, a 19-year-old Marlee Matlin was cast in Randa Haines’s film adaptation of Mark Medoff’s play Children of a Lesser God. This role made Marlee Matlin the youngest Oscar winner for Best Actress and an icon for the Deaf community. Despite the belief that this role would be a one-hit wonder, Matlin enjoyed a more than three-decade-long career, peaking when she appeared in the Best Picture-winning film CODA.
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore Synopsis
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is a biography of the deaf actor and activist, and is the directorial debut for fellow deaf actor Shoshannah Stern. The story of the film is built around a central interview with Marlee Matlin, done entirely through subtitled American Sign Language. The film’s other interviews include career-long interpreter Jack Jason, lifelong friend Henry Winkler, and CODA co-star Troy Kotsur, who became the second deaf actor to win an Oscar. Becoming deaf when she was 18 months old, Marlee Matlin had to move past the prejudices of her family to enjoy the career that she would have, which, in addition to Children of a Lesser God, would include guest roles on Seinfeld and The West Wing.
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My Thoughts on Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
As can be surmised by the title, the story of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is framed between Marlee Matlin’s Oscar-winning debut in Children of a Lesser God and 2021’s CODA, which won all three of its Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur. The film also tackles Matlin’s abusive relationship with Children of a Lesser God co-star William Hurt, who was 16 years her senior, and the immense scrutiny she received after her Oscar win, especially after Matlin’s controversial decision to verbally speak the names of the nominees when presenting the following year. As a whole, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is a very inspirational story of someone who was able to move past her disability and enjoy a decades-long acting career.
