This year’s Sundance Film Festival featured a number of women’s stories, especially among the documentaries. As one of the earliest films to play at the festival, Shoshannah Stern’s feature debut set quite a high bar. “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” features interviews with the first Deaf actress to win an Academy Award as well as other performers and advocates in the Deaf community, friends, and loved ones who paint a well-rounded portrait of Marlee Matlin, who both on-screen and off, continues her advocacy for the disabled community in the entertainment industry.
We follow Matlin through her troubled early years, the moment she broke through with “Children of a Lesser God,” how she endured an abusive relationship with her co-star William Hurt that was painted like a Hollywood romance in the press, and afterward, saw her persevere in the industry despite the prejudice against deaf actors.
More than your average biographical documentary, Stern and Matlin go beyond the typical story beats to include insight into the history of disability rights. From old footage of how Deaf characters were played on stage and screen to how Deaf children were subject to primitive hearing devices and bad teaching practices in mid-century America, the pair venture onto these tangents that are deeply illuminating and often heartbreaking. Showing the odds against Matlin only deepened my appreciation of her work and filled in the blanks of my own knowledge of her role in history, including her part in pushing the FCC to adopt closed captioning.
In a sense, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” is a bittersweet corrective, a tribute to a trailblazer long overdue her flowers. Through lively conversations with Stern on a comfy-looking couch, Matlin candidly shares her pains, fears, hopes, and aspirations for her future. Matlin’s previous Sundance hit, “CODA,” functions as something of a victory lap in the documentary. Still, her foray into directing points to a bigger future many former naysayers could have never imagined. The documentary also features on-screen descriptions so that both hearing and deaf audiences can enjoy the film in its fullness, a thoughtful approach that’s a testament to Matlin and Stern’s work.
Although the subject of Cristina Costantini’s newest documentary, “SALLY,” is no longer with us to tell audiences her story, many of her friends, family, former colleagues, and her long-hidden life partner Tam O’Shaughnessy are on hand to share their memories of the first women who went to space on behalf of the United States. “Sally” tells the story of a determined young woman who defies the odds and academically bests many of her male counterparts to join one of the first classes of astronauts that included women and people of color. Yet despite the honor of being the first woman to be sent to space, she endured frivolous questions and scrutiny from the press because of her gender. NASA engineers at the time figured their first women astronauts would need makeup in space, so they made them kits, but were unsure of how many tampons to send up in the shuttle with them. Other male colleagues thought space was no place for a woman and greeted their fellow astronauts with hostility. Ride moved on from NASA to advocate for more girls and women in science and settled down with her life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, out of the public eye until her death from pancreatic cancer years later.
“SALLY,” which won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, is an inspiring tale of a woman breaking one of the tallest glass ceilings for her field but feels immensely tragic for both Ride and O’Shaughnessy, who, because of their same-sex partnership, could not be open about their 27-year long relationship, could not show affection in public, or hold hands on the street. It terrified Ride to be publicly outed as a lesbian, so O’Shaughnessy followed her partner’s lead and hid her queerness out of love, and the pain and frustration of that strain is still evident in her voice during interviews. O’Shaughnessy is a compelling narrator, leading most of the movie with her colorful anecdotes and touching memories. It was a complicated relationship but still full of love for the surviving O’Shaughnessy.
Costantini, who previously came to Sundance with the charming documentary “Science Fair” and the heartwarming tribute to Walter Mercado, one of the most famous TV astrologers of his day, with “Mucho Mucho Amor,” weaves together Ride’s story out of the memories of her loved ones and archival footage of Ride in the space program, awkward interviews with the press, and headline clippings. She also incorporates some reenacted scenes that feel superfluous, but Ride’s story is entertaining and informative enough without them. We learn more about Ride and her legacy just by listening to what people have to say about her during and after her lifetime.
One comment I heard about the next movie on my list was quite the opposite sentiment: “What else is there to say about Selena?” Fair point. The Queen of Tejano music has been talked about (and continues to be part of the conversation) decades after her lifetime. Still, in the view of Isabel Castro‘s heartfelt tribute to the singer and her family, “Selena y Los Dinos,” yes, there’s still more to say about the singer. Documenting the Quintanilla family’s story, Castro’s film retraces their journey from a family band featuring Selena, her brother A.B., and sister Suzette to an award-winning musical juggernaut, making history and topping the Tejano charts before her untimely death.
With the help of extensive interviews with the family members, fellow bandmates, people who were there, and footage from the Quintanilla family archives, Castro tells Selena’s story with a personal perspective from those who were there to see her meteoric rise. The film marks Castro’s return to Sundance after her earlier film, “Mija,” played at the festival in 2022.
At first glance, much of Selena’s story was immortalized in Gregory Nava’s film starring Jennifer Lopez as the singer, but the documentary features many moments we haven’t seen before–or at least in moments that don’t get regularly circulated on social media. We see Selena in home movies bored on the band’s bus, Big Bertha, later awkwardly navigating questions in Spanish when her primary language is English or looking tired from non-stop touring.
One of the greatest critiques I’ve heard about the earlier versions of Selena’s story is that her voice feels absent from the work. While she’s no longer here to tell her side of events, this treasure trove of archival footage–home movies, TV interviews, outtakes, and so on–allows us to hear her voice throughout the documentary. She is present in her own words in a way that has possibly never been heard before, and that, in and of itself, was quite moving. It’s impressive to hear from her and her family about what they went through on this unbelievable journey. Unsurprisingly, the film earned a special citation from its Sundance jury for archival storytelling.
Selena was always part of our lives for women of Castro’s and my generation. We heard her voice at parties and in the backseat of cars on long road trips; her CDs and tapes were in the mix of the family’s music collection. Nava’s film only solidified her memory, imprinting quotes, lyrics, and costumes (yes, even the cow print duds that appear in the documentary) in our imaginations. For newcomers who still say, “Who’s Selena?” the documentary is a pitch-perfect primer from those who knew her best and the wealth of archival material Castro uses to take her viewers back to that era.
For fans, “Selena y Los Dinos” gives us an unbelievable treat of hearing the singer in her own words, watching the real Selena perform her songs alongside her husband Chris Pérez, A.B., and Suzette, giving the audience in the know the kind of nostalgic rush you feel the moment “Como La Flor” or “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” takes over a dance floor. You may cheer, you may cry–as I did plenty of times–and although we may not learn new information we haven’t seen before in earlier movies, TV specials, or podcasts, “Selena y Los Dinos” encapsulates why so many fans still love Selena and her music after all these years.
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