Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is an intimate documentary portrait of the Oscar-winning actress and her impact on Deaf representation in Hollywood. Through candid interviews, archival footage, and heartfelt conversations, the film explores Matlin’s journey from her groundbreaking Academy Award win for Children of a Lesser God to her enduring advocacy for the Deaf community.
Directed by Deaf filmmaker Shoshannah Stern, the documentary premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and is slated for a release in theaters on June 20th.
According to the official synopsis, the film chronicles Matlin’s life from her childhood and early experiences with deafness to her historic Oscar win and her ongoing fight for Deaf representation in Hollywood.
Here is the synopsis: In 1987, at the age of just 21, Marlee Matlin shattered expectations as the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award® for her groundbreaking performance in Children of a Lesser God. Catapulted into the spotlight, she seized the moment to challenge an industry unprepared for her immense talent, emerging as a trailblazer not only as a performer but also as an author and activist. Matlin’s incredible journey continued with standout roles in acclaimed projects such as The West Wing and the Oscar®-winning CODA, all while relentlessly advocating for greater inclusion and accessibility both within Hollywood and beyond its borders. Matlin opens up about her personal and professional struggles – her meteoric rise to fame, the challenges of navigating a predominantly hearing industry, the pain of a tumultuous high-profile relationship, getting sober and years of being overlooked by Hollywood – alongside her many triumphs.
Director Shoshannah Stern reimagines traditional documentary storytelling, elevating ASL as the film’s heart and soul while removing conventional voiceovers and including open captions, creating an authentic and visually immersive experience. Through split-screen interviews with both Deaf and hearing contributors, the film weaves a poignant and inspiring narrative of Matlin’s legendary career, highlighting her tireless fight for inclusion and representation in an entertainment world that at first had no place for her.
Director Shoshannah Stern, in an interview with Sundance stated, “For a long time, the Deaf experience has been told mainly by people living outside of our experience for people who also live outside of it. I think there is value and beauty in telling our story the way we would tell it to ourselves.”
Critics have lauded Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, with Collider review praising director Shoshannah Stern’s ‘unique approach to the documentary’ writing, “As a deaf filmmaker, she sought not only to approach the documentary from an accessibility angle but also emphasized that scenes where subjects are signing could be completely silent. There are moments where we hear things from Matlin’s perspective when she’s in a full room where we are distinctly aware of what it’s like in a deaf person’s shoes when at a party where everyone is verbal. It’s a perspective you might not expect from a documentary, but it offers the type of insight only a deaf director could show.”
Watch the official trailer for Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.