For almost 40 years, actress Marlee Matlin has shown how what some may deem a disability can actually be made a strength. Winning the 1986 Academy Award for Best Actress for her stunning turn in “Children of a Lesser God,” Matlin became the first deaf performer to receive such an accolade and quickly rose as a representative for the deaf community at-large, promoting the implantation of closed-captioning and serving as a celebrity ambassador for disability rights with the ACLU. Her film and television career has also continued to flourish, recently taking part in the 2022 Best Picture winning family drama “CODA.” To honor her work, American Masters at PBS commissioned a documentary on her life, but before agreeing to sign on, Matlin had a few stipulations.
“I was approached by American Masters at PBS to do a film about my life and I said, ‘Sure, absolutely,’ and I have, though, one condition that it must be directed by a deaf person, a deaf director, a woman,” said Matlin in an interview at Sundance‘s IndieWire Studio presented by Dropbox. “And so I offered up Shoshannah’s name. And hers was the only name and the rest is history basically.”
Like Matlin, Shoshannah Stern is a hearing impaired actress, but their connection to one another goes much deep than that. Both trained at the International Center of Deafness, the Arts & Education (ICODA), where a chance encounter brought them together forever.
“I had won a competition and so I went to ICODA and it was the first time that I was away from my family,” Stern told IndieWire. “I felt very alone and I went to ICODA and there was this woman. She was just glowing. 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 that was Libby Matlin, and that was Marlee’s mom. And so I just felt like our lives had intertwined our path.”
Stern’s hope in making the documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” is to not only shine a light on what deaf artists must face, but to make something “as beautiful and as powerful” as its subject. Similarly, Matlin hopes people watch for more than just a history on her life and career.
“I hope people will see this film, listen, watch, and give other people in the deaf community the opportunity to do what they want to do, what they deserve to get in their lives,” she said.
Stern echoed this sentiment, pointing to the work that Matlin has done as not only beneficial to the deaf community, but to everyone.
“When they had to install ramps on curbs, everybody was like, ‘Why? Why do we have to do that?’ But now we all carry suitcases, we all have strollers,” said Stern. “Everyone uses the ramps on curbs. Accessibility builds a better world, and really it is time that we stop resisting it.”
“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. American Masters via PBS will air the documentary later this year.
Dropbox is proud to partner with IndieWire and the Sundance Film Festival. In 2025, 68% of feature films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival used Dropbox in their film production. Dropbox helps filmmakers and creative teams find, organize, and secure all the files that are important to any project.”Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. American Masters via PBS will air the documentary later this year.
