‘Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore’ Is a Celebration of Deaf Achievement

Photo by Mettie Ostrowski

In 1987, actress Marlee Matlin won a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Children of a Lesser God. In doing so, Matlin made history as not only the youngest, but also the first Deaf actor to win an Oscar. This is the starting point of Shoshannah Stern’s documentary, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, which then charts the events that follow in Matlin’s life, career, and in her newfound role as an advocate for the Deaf community. If the film makes one thing clear, it’s that the enduring impact of Matlin’s historical win was not given, but fought for, with Matlin at the helm. And as the title suggests, the film is not just her story. It may be about Matlin, but the real subject is her career-long battle to share the spotlight. 

Matlin may have broken down barriers with her Oscar win, theoretically paving the path for other deaf actors, but many obstacles remained. Critics denigrated her win by calling it a “pity vote,” the media painted her success as a fluke, and even as they outwardly celebrated her, reporters undermined her achievement by calling her “handicapped.” With the media’s ableist response, a light was shone on larger societal challenges for the Deaf community. From language deprivation to anti-deaf bias in Hollywood, Stern’s documentary exposes issues that the hearing world takes for granted, raising the thought: If the most famous deaf person in the world can be affected, imagine what it’s like for the rest of the community.

After her Oscar win, Matlin didn’t rest on her laurels like most actors might. She was not only forced to defend her victory, but it also came with a cause, as Matlin became an accidental activist for Deaf rights. In 1990, she spoke before Congress to urge for mandated closed captioning on all TV sets, which was passed into law three years later. Her public advocacy was also instrumental in the Deaf President Now (DPN) movement, which led to the election of the first deaf president at Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf and hard of hearing. 

Grounding these historical moments and the larger theme of Deaf identity are glimpses into who Matlin is as a person. We get candid accounts of her offscreen romance with her Children of a Lesser God co-star, William Hurt, whose abuse she could not immediately address or report due to language deprivation. Matlin also recounts her struggles with drug addiction, which she overcame around the same time she ended her relationship with Hurt. We also get to know Matlin through interviews with her loved ones: her brothers, her oldest daughter, friends—including actor Henry Winkler, who Matlin calls her second dad—and colleagues like Aaron Sorkin, who created a recurring character for her in The West Wing. Through their testimonials, we get a full picture of a loving sister, a patient daughter, a protective mother, and a dogged actor determined to clear that path she started to pave with her Oscar, for herself and for other deaf and hard-of-hearing actors. 

Photo by Mettie Ostrowski

The documentary’s title rings with significance when it recounts another watershed moment at the Oscars—in 2022, Troy Kotsur became the second deaf actor to win an Academy Award when he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 2021 film CODA, in which Matlin co-stars. During a press interview after the ceremony, Matlin is overcome with emotion, mostly pride, as she signs, “I’m not alone anymore.” 

However, of all the relationships Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore illuminates, perhaps the most important one is between Matlin and her director. Stern, who is deaf herself, decided early on that it was crucial to take an innovative approach in how she presented language in the documentary. She worked with a deaf artist to create color-coded captions for the film. She also appears on screen with Matlin during their interviews, which are conducted entirely in American Sign Language without voiceover narration. These quiet stretches may feel unnatural to the viewer at first, but that’s because of the inherent bias that both Matlin and Stern would like to turn on its head. “It’s not that we struggle because we don’t have language,” Stern tells the audience following the film’s opening night in New York. “The world has decided that sound is how you get language.” Her film, and Matlin’s story, are proof that you don’t need sound to live loudly.

Watch the entire Q&A with Matlin and Stern below and stream Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore now on Kino Film Collection.

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025)