For my cultural inquiry, I’ve been looking at both fictional and biographical narratives of CODAs (children of Deaf adults). I’d heard great reviews of the 2021 film CODA with one of my favorite Deaf actresses, Marlee Matlin. All Deaf characters are portrayed by Deaf actors, and the use of ASL is prolific in the film.
As a daughter of two Deaf parents, Ruby is often responsible for interpreting. Her parents work as fishermen within a hearing community. The family finds themselves in internal conflict as Ruby debates whether to stay home and help the business or, ironically, to pursue her passion for music in college. Her parents understand the importance of her independence and passion while recognizing their inability to function without a means to communicate with the broader fishing community. In a particularly tense moment, they lose their fishing licenses after not being able to hear sirens.
Despite their inability to connect through music, they continue to show up in support of their daughter, ultimately encouraging her as she’s accepted into music school. Some of their employees learn sign, and they are able to communicate without relying on their daughter.
The Deaf community’s reception to the film was varied, with casting and complexity of characters being praised. There was also great excitement around seeing Deaf representation on such a major scale. As we know, representation is only the beginning, and inaccuracies surrounding the CODA experience were critiqued. Creative liberties, for example, that Ruby was studying music, felt trite and derogatory to some Deaf viewers. Times in which Ruby was expected to interpret were also unrealistic, particularly when she is asked to interpret in a medical setting.
From an ASL perspective, it’s lovely to watch the subtle differences in how the Deaf and hearing actors sign, with the latter being a bit more formulaic and relying less on syntactic features found in ASL but not English.
At the end of the day, this film stands more so as a testament to Deaf acting than as an accurate portrayal of the CODA experience, but I enjoyed watching it with a critical lens.
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