Marlee Matlin is opening up about her trailblazing legacy in an emotional new documentary.
PEOPLE has the exclusive first trailer for Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, in which the Oscar-winning actress looks back on her childhood, acting, advocacy and more.
Matlin, 59, tells PEOPLE in a statement, "I'm so excited to have audiences share in my journey and get it directly from my hands! It's real and it's raw, and despite the barriers out there, anyone watching, Deaf or hearing, can identify."
Adds director Shoshannah Stern, "I knew that to do justice to Marlee’s legacy and her extraordinary life, I needed to make this film an immersive one."
"I wanted to bring the audience into her visual and sound perspective to compel them to experience the world the way we do — because by telling her story," continues Stern, "I am telling the story of so many other Deaf people as well."
Kino Lorber
Not Alone Anymore chronicles Matlin’s journey from her breakout as the youngest and first Deaf winner of the Best Actress Oscar, to the years following, when she fought for cultural representation of the Deaf community onscreen. (The documentary’s title refers to a comment Matlin made after her 2021 film CODA and its star Troy Kotsur earned Oscars 35 years after her historic win.)
"Okay, so you never saw a Deaf actor win an Oscar? Okay, I'll prove it to you that I belong here in Hollywood," Matlin says in the trailer, which shows highlights from her awards season run for the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God.
The film features sitdowns with several of Matlin's collaborators, including director Aaron Sorkin, who worked with Matlin on The West Wing, CODA costar Kotsur, and writer-producer Sian Heder, actor John Maucere, plus longtime friend Henry Winkler.
"I felt like there was an earthquake booming through Hollywood," Kotsur explains of Matlin's impact on the industry.
Kino Lorber
The documentary also details Matlin's influential work, such as the actress pushing for closed captioning on television in the 1980s. Matlin admits in an interview with Stern that she "became an advocate without knowing it at first."
Kino Lorber
Speaking at PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly’s Shutterstock official Sundance Film Festival portrait studio in January, Stern told PEOPLE, "I have often seen [Matlin's] story be compared to a Cinderella story."
"She was plucked from obscurity and sent to the Oscars. I always felt like that's doing Marlee a disservice because Marlee has worked so hard," Stern added.
The documentary was produced by Robyn Kopp, Justine Nagan, Bonni Cohen and Stern.
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will next play at the Tribeca Film Festival, followed by a New York City release June 20 then Los Angeles June 27.
