A recent article on the CNET website discusses the way in which the movie “CODA” (Child of Deaf Adults) has been considered groundbreaking for its portrayal of a deaf family and their communication via American Sign Language (ASL).

Related article: UConn Launches ASL Education Program

Showing on Apple Plus and in theaters, the movie is about the hearing daughter of deaf parents who wants to sing at Berklee College of Music, and has as many scenes in ASL as it does in spoken English, according to CNET. “CODA”’s director Siân Heder cast the movie with deaf actors as well as working with ASL Masters in order to get the language correct, the article reports.

According to Marlee Matlin, who costarred in “CODA,” the film marks the first time since “Children of a Lesser God” that a film incorporated so much ASL by so many deaf actors. Matlin was the first deaf actor to win an Oscar in 1986 for “Children of a Lesser God.”

Given the expressiveness that’s part of ASL—considered both a “language as well as an art form”—it was imperative to work with ASL experts, who were also able to pervade the movie with details specific to deaf culture and lived experience.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Source: CNET