Premiere of “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival
MJ Kiego, Guest Reporter: Hello, I’m MJ Kiego. I will be reporting for “The Daily Moth” today. I’m here at the Eccles Theater in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. This is the sign. This is the premiere, which means it’s the first time that the film, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” documentary is shown. It’s going to premiere in a few minutes. There is the film crew here and many people lined up over there. It’s a sold out show.
Marlee Matlin: I was asked to do “American Masters.” I asked for a Deaf director to do the show. I threw out just one name: Shoshannah Stern. The rest is history. I felt that it was time to tell my story. I know that she would tell it in a 2,000% authentic way. And it was. Simple as that.
Nyle DiMarco: This is the first time that we have a documentary about a Deaf person and if you think you know everything about Marlee Matlin, you don’t! Watch it!
MJ: I’m here with Shoshannah Stern, who directed “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.” I’m asking for a few words about how she feels with the premiere in Sundance 2025.
Shoshannah Stern, Director: I was deeply moved because I think it’s my fifth time at Sundance – I’m lucky. But I was the only (Deaf) person. Maybe two of us. But to see that many deaf people in the audience, wow.
MJ: How many deaf people do you think are here for Sundance?
Shoshannah: I would say maybe 20 or 25?
MJ: I think it’s more, honestly. It’s lucky that there’s an overlap with another Deaf feature documentary.
Shoshannah: I know that more will come here in the coming days. But it’s the opening day. There’s 25 of us! Opening Day is usually more low-key and not as packed. I can’t wait until deaf people take over Sundance! It’s time!
MJ: What was your experience like making this film? In a nutshell? I know it could take an hour to explain!
Shoshannah: Magical. To have a team of really accomplished documentary filmmakers believe in my vision from literally Day One. They never tried to force their views. I wanted a Deaf perspective. I wanted to make a visual documentary. All the documentaries I saw were sound-based. I wanted a visual documentary, to give ASL a platform. I wanted captions. I wanted things and the team always said, “sure.” They believed and supported and uplifted my vision and made sure we hired other deaf people on the crew as well. It’s magical. That’s the bad part about this, I feel bittersweet that the experience of working with the team is now over, but now the film is here!
MJ: Definitely. For those of you who are not here at Sundance, you can watch it online. I think you can buy tickets on Sundance’s website. If you haven’t, please check it out!
Shoshannah: Yeah. Thank you.
MJ: Thank you for the interview!
Shoshannah: MJ was a part of it! I’m lucky to have her as an assistant editor. I’m thrilled to see more Deaf women. Our team is really pro-female. So to have another Deaf woman is incredible.
MJ: Thank you for the opportunity!
Shoshannah: Of course. I’m excited to see what you’ll do in the future.
MJ: Definitely. Deaf uplifting other Deaf!
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