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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore' film links language deprivation to deeper scars — 'Language is a privilege'
The documentary reframes Marlee Matlin's life, spotlighting joy, language deprivation, and authentic experiences through American Sign Language When Oscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin was approached with the concept for a documentary about her life, she knew she wanted Shoshannah Stern to direct. By having her story told with a Deaf director at the helm, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is a reframing of Matlin's story with an authenticity we've never seen before. While the film includes Matlin's rise to fame, her experience with substance abuse and domestic violence, there's so much joy in this film as the audience is immersed in this remarkable look at Matlin's life. Stern's approach was to make a visual documentary that puts American Sign Language (ASL) front and centre, rather than using the more common traditional voiceovers. It's something that's never been done before, putting the first-time director in a position of crafting a film without any previous examples as a guide, but it was executed to perfection. "I do have this opportunity that could really bring people into her experience, and rather than seeing our experience being Deaf women as something different or something opposite, or something as like the other, which is typically how we're described as Deaf women," Stern told Yahoo Canada through an ASL interpreter. "And so I made sure that I would frame that not as a challenge. ... A lot of people had kept saying, 'Oh gosh, that's not the way that it's done.' And for me I thought, well thank you so much for showing me that I really needed to find people that were able to see this as an opportunity the same way that I do." But a source of inspiration for Stern was actually watching Matlin on set when she directed an episode of the series Accused. "I saw Marlee directing in a way that I have never seen before," Stern shared. "I know there's an expectation with TV, like as an actress I had mostly worked in TV, and usually you have to move really fast and not as much support with acting choices or anything like that. ... But Marlee really just pushed all that aside and she followed her intuition. And she gave the type of support and leadership to the Deaf actors that I wish that I had gotten." "She didn't look at her experiences that she's had with other hearing directors who had directed TV thinking, oh I need to do this just like I'd seen before. No, I think Marlee decided that she was going to direct in a way that she wanted to direct, and how she had wanted to be directed. ... So I thought, OK I don't have to just do what has been done before in documentary. I can really stay in touch with my intuition and do what my intuition and my instincts are telling me. And I felt like I had to make a film with empathy and reframe the form of documentary in a way that really put the way we experience the world front and centre, and allow the film to be really an immersed experience for audience members, so that they could understand how Marlee and I experience the world." 'They cannot imagine a world where people don't have access to words' A core part of making this an immersive documentary is how the film puts candid conversations about language deprivation at the centre of the story. It's a connection that's really never been made in a film, with Matlin and Stern discussing the intersection of language deprivation with various moments in Matlin's life, including domestic violence and the pressure on Matlin when she was thrust into the spotlight after Children of a Lesser God. "Having a conversation with Shoshannah really couldn't have been the same if I had talked to anybody else who didn't have the experience of language deprivation," Matlin stressed. "We have different upbringings, different family dynamics, but she understood what I was talking about when I talked about language deprivation, to the point where I didn't have to go into an in-depth detailing how it affected me." "She never once in our conversations questioned me. She never once put me down. She never once put words in my mouth, or my hands, if you want to say, if you want to be ironic about it. ... That's why I felt 200 per cent at ease in sitting on that couch. ... When I talk about the issues of accessibility, of being thrust by the Deaf community to decide what it is that I have to say about our community, ... and I didn't even know that there were words or language having to do with so many things happening in my life. ... I was sort of left to navigate on my own. It took time. And there were people to guide me, a few people to get to the point where I got things done." Stern added that the language deprivation piece of the story was something she really wanted to "make clear." "Whenever I had talked about this film and I had been talking about Marlee's story, I had said there's been this assumption, because how it's been for everybody else, ... that language is a right, something that people get from birth," Stern stressed. "But within our community, the Deaf community, language is a privilege, and it should not be that way. And I think that's something that I've felt like the world has gotten wrong. Intentionally, no, but they cannot imagine a world where people don't have access to words." "So often I see our experience represented on screen always being like, 'Oh, poor Deaf person.' The biggest challenge is that they can't hear music, and that's not the truth. ... The biggest challenge is that we don't have access to words, and without words how are we supposed to understand ourselves? How are we supposed to understand the people around us? How are we supposed to understand the world? How are we supposed to understand right from wrong? And so that was something that I had to explain over and over and over again. Whenever we were pitching this story to other people I had to say, 'Hey, you know, this is what we're up against.' ... I realized this has to be a part of Marlee's story, ... and it happened organically. ... I'm a survivor as well, and I didn't understand until much later in life, until I had access to Deaf-led groups, Deaf-led organizations that were familiar with domestic violence, that three out of four Deaf women experience domestic violence. And I believe the reason is because of language deprivation. That's the connection. And so if people understand, harm can come if you don't give a child access to language, any language, it doesn't just have to be a spoken language, then harm can be reduced." 'When you live in a world that wasn't made by you or for you, you hold on to joy' But while Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore handles the challenges in Matlin's life with care and authenticity, this is an incredibly joyful film, especially with the lively and enthusiastic conversations she has with Stern. "Marlee really is a joyful person, and so I think when you live in a world that wasn't made by you or for you, you hold on to joy," Stern highlighted. "And so I knew that it was always important to make sure that we did have moments of joy being shown in this film." "Especially when you find connection on a shared experience, that's joyful. When you're able to talk with someone who understands you in the same language, and you're not having to explain or educate yourself over and over and over again, that's joyful. That's joy. And a lot of times, when I'm seeing stories that should be told about us, but they're written by other people with different lived experiences, they think that when Deaf people get together they just talk about how hard it is, and how sad they are. But I grew up in a family of all Deaf members and we laugh so hard all the time in our house. Deaf people, when they're together, they are happy, and that's the human experience. ... So it was so important for people to be immersed in that type of joy that Marlee and I are able to experience, and I think that's able to help other people access our challenges better too." "The fact that when I have a conversation with anyone who speaks my language and is Deaf, ... it's the connection that's important, that brings me joy," Matlin added. "It's satisfying, the fact that I'm accepted by the other person, the fact that my heart is whole when I get that experience." "But the bottom line is that ... when I connect with hearing people and Deaf people, really any person, ... as long as we are nice to each other, show our mutual respect and empathy, that brings me joy, simple as that." Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is now in theatres in Toronto and Vancouver, with more cities to come
Associated Press
7 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Parents were given their deceased son's brain by funeral homes, lawsuit alleges
Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son's brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father's hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week. The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a 'good young man,' their son, Timothy Garlington. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington's mother, Abbey Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears. After Garlington's death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped from one funeral home in Georgia to another in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabeled red box. At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler couldn't open the red box, said the Butlers' attorney, L. Chris Stewart, at the news conference. Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers' car, began to smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up, the fluid covered his hands, 'which was brain matter. It's insane,' Stewart said. When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations & Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington's brain and some mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box to Nix & Nix, he said. The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to comment when contacted by the AP. 'The parents last memory is holding their son's brain,' said Stewart in an interview with The Associated Press. 'I had to get rid of that car,' Lawrence Butler said, 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted emotional distress. Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no point in the process is the brain 'separated from body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion.' If it ever is, he said, then it is in a sealed bag and labeled biohazardous. Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleges, they shouldn't have handed the box over to the Butlers because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern Cremations. Julian Nix, the manager of the titular funeral home, told the AP that 'it was definitely not our fault' because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabeled box. Nix said they reported it to authorities once they learned what was inside. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found they weren't responsible, he said, but the documents proving that weren't yet available. The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong. They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning, so that similar incidents won't happen again. Garlington, a veteran of the U.S. Marines who was working in financial aid for schools, has since been buried in Washington Crossing National Cemetery. Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still don't know whether Garlington's brain was buried with the rest of him. 'They fear, which is totally understandable: is he resting in peace?' he said.
Fox News
9 minutes ago
- Fox News
AOC broke house rules to attend ritzy Met Gala in 'tax the rich' dress, ordered to pay up
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has found herself in the red, owing thousands of dollars to a Black-owned, female-led accessories brand after breaching the House "Gift Rule." The violation stems from not paying the full market value for items she donned at the 2021 MET Gala, where she famously wore the "Tax the Rich" dress, and accepting free admission to the event for her fiancé, Riley Roberts. Tickets to the Met Gala cost at least $30,000, the Associated Press reported. It is unclear whether Ocasio-Cortez purchased her own ticket. The House Ethics Committee released its report on Friday, finding that although Ocasio-Cortez "proactively took steps" to comply with the Gift Rule in relation to her Met Gala appearance, she failed to fully comply. The committee found evidence suggesting that the designer, Brother Vellies, may have lowered costs in response to statements from Ocasio-Cortez's staff, and that payments to vendors were significantly delayed, according to the report. In several cases, payment did not occur until after the investigation was initiated, the committee noted. The report also concluded that members of AOC's staff were "overly reliant" on the vendors themselves to ensure her compliance with the Gift Rule, despite the vendors' countervailing incentives to ensure she would be able to promote their goods and services. However, the committee said it did not conclude that the alleged underpayments had been "intentional," instead placing the blame on a campaign staffer who handled payment discussions. AOC herself blamed her staff while speaking with investigators in March 2023, saying she did not know of any unpaid expenses related to the dress she had worn and stylists who prepared her for the gala, Fox News Digital previously reported. "I just never, ever, ever would have allowed that to happen, knowing what I have learned," Ocasio-Cortez said at the time. "But I wasn't privy to the invoices, wasn't privy to the ones that had been sent." Based on its findings, the committee determined it would be appropriate for the Democrat to make additional payments from personal funds to compensate for the fair market value of certain expenses. No sanctions will be imposed, so long as she donates the $250 value of Roberts' Met Gala meal to the Costume Institute and pays Brother Vellies an additional $2,733.28 for the fair market value of the accessories she received in connection with the gala. After the committee receives confirmation that the payments were completed, it said it will consider the matter closed. Ocasio-Cortez, the Costume Institute and Brother Vellies did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
