Key Highlights
- “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” is an intimate account of the performer and activist’s triumphs and struggles, which include her 1987 Oscar win as lead actress in “Children of a Lesser God,” a first for a Deaf actor.
- (She also holds the record for youngest person to win in the category, at 21.) Approaching the project as a Deaf actor herself, Stern found innovative ways to help viewers connect with Matlin’s perception of the sound around her.“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, this is a celebrity doc, very traditional.’ But then slowly the film does shift,” Stern says via her interpreter, Karri Aiken, on a recent video call.
- “You’re realizing that you do see things more from Marlee’s perspective.”Most obviously, Stern presents her conversations with Matlin — the women curled up opposite each other on a cozy sofa — entirely in American Sign Language, using captions rather than a verbal interpreter or voice-over, which allowed for more accurate translation.
- “Sometimes, interpreters don’t get everything right in the moment,” Stern says.
- The soundtrack captures the subtle smack of lips moving and the flutter of expressive hands moving through air, as well as extraneous sound like the hum of a jet passing overhead.
