The first movie I watched at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah was a film called “CODA,” which actually premiered as part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, but never premiered in person in Park City because of the COVID Pandemic.
My friend Madison went to see the film with me… and we were both blown away with how good it was. By the movie’s end, we were both crying and in total awe.
CODA is the story of a high-school girl named Ruby who has deaf parents and a deaf brother… but she can hear. And because she can hear, she plays a vital role in connecting her family with the rest of the world. She works on the family’s fishing boat, she translates for her family members when they go into public, and she acts as her family’s constant connection to the hearing world.
But when Ruby decides that she wants to go to college and study music, her family doesn’t understand. Not only can they not hear music themselves (or comprehend why Ruby would want to devote her life to an artwork that they can’t personally appreciate), but her family depends on her for their survival.
So, what does she do? Stay with her family and give up her dream? Or chase her dream and abandon the family who so desperately needs her?
I loved this film because it really made me think: How much do you owe to your family members? And how much do they owe to you?
I especially enjoyed the part of the film where Ruby is singing up on stage in front of her entire school and, as her parents sit in the audience, the sound goes out… and for a brief moment you get to experience what it’s like to be deaf – to see people moving around in total silence, smiling and dancing, but unable to actually hear or appreciate the sound.
This part of the film seriously had me in tears. It was devastating and eye-opening in the best kind of way.
If you have not yet watched CODA, this is seriously one of the best movies I’ve seen in years… and it might just be one of my favorite movies of all time. It was seriously that good!
CODA world premiered in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition section where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic, and Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast.