Lipreading Mom

My husband and I went to the theater a week after cochlear implant surgery. We saw the documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” about Marlee’s career as a deaf actress and advocate for the deaf community. 

The film, directed by deaf actress Shoshannah Stern, explores Marlee’s rise to fame after winning the Best Actress Oscar for “Children of a Lesser God” in 1987. It also features her successful advocacy for TV closed captioning in the late 1980s, her  journey with sobriety and domestic abuse, and her later career highlights. This includes starring in a number of TV shows, such as “The West Wing”, and in the 2021 Oscar-winning film “CODA”.

One of the unique aspects of “Not Alone Anymore” is its creative use of open captions. When Marlee, Shoshannah, and others interviewed use ASL, open captions transcribe what they sign. 

In one scene, Marlee stands in a kitchen with her adult brothers and their families as they are immersed in verbal conversation. The open captions transcribe how much of the conversation is overlapping or words that are indecipherable. Marlee attempts to lip read her family members since they are not signing. At one point, Marlee relaxes on a couch and signs “bored”. 

I thought about my attempts to lip read and that same frustration of not understanding and feeling left out of conversation. Afterward, I went to the theater bathroom and sobbed. This film perfectly captured living in a hearing world when one is deaf or hard of hearing. How do you lip read people talking over one another when you can’t hear them? How do you understand their words when they are spoken and not signed?

During the documentary’s closing credits, Marlee signs the words to Billy Joel’s song “My Life” as it plays in the background. In interviews about the film, Marlee explains that “My Life” was her late dad’s favorite song. I also am a Billy Joel fan, and these lyrics depict for me what living in a hearing world is like when one can’t hear and the complexities of trying to engage in that world:

I never said you had to offer me a second chance

I never said I was a victim of circumstance

I still belong

Don’t get me wrong

And you can speak your mind

But not on my time

You can stream the film on Amazon Prime, and there are limited theater showings in the U.S. and the U.K. Learn more here.

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Photo description: I stand in front of a billboard for “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” and use the ASL sign for “I love you”. (Photo credit: My husband)