Virtual Theatrical Experience: 2022 S.W.A.N. (Support Women Artists Now) Day Screening – ‘Coda’

Join NYWIFT, IFC Films, SAG-AFTRA, FF2 Media, Women in the Arts & Media Coalition (WAMC), HerFlix, In Creative Company, Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP) and African-American Women in Cinema (AAWIC) for a screening of Coda in recognition of S.W.A.N. (Support Women Artists Now) Day, an annual event on the last Saturday of March that celebrates women artists. 

About the Film

Seventeen-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the sole hearing member of a deaf family – a CODA, child of deaf adults. Her life revolves around acting as interpreter for her parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) and working on the family’s struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant). But when Ruby joins her high school’s choir club, she discovers a gift for singing and soon finds herself drawn to her duet partner Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Encouraged by her enthusiastic, tough-love choirmaster (Eugenio Derbez) to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams.

Event Details

Screening Dates: Film available from Friday, March 25th starting at 9:00AM through Sunday, March 27th ending at 12:00AM

Featuring: Intro by Director Sian Heder

How to See the Film: A link will be sent out on Friday morning.

Cost: Free  

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Siân Heder grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a family of visual artists. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she works as a writer, director and showrunner. Her most recent work includes executive producing and co-showrunning “Little America” for Apple TV+ and directing “CODA.” She wrote and produced for three seasons on the acclaimed Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black,” receiving multiple WGA nominations for her work. Her other television credits include “Men of a Certain Age,” which earned her a Peabody Award. She has directed episodes of Netflix’s “GLOW” and “Orange Is the New Black,” Hulu’s “The Path” and “Little America.” Her first short film, “Mother,” was awarded the Cinéfondation Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival. Her debut feature film, “Tallulah,” starring Elliot Page and Alison Janney, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was released as a Netflix original.

Troy Kotsur has been acting and directing for over 20 years. Deaf since birth, he was raised in Mesa, Arizona. In his career he has had critically acclaimed performances in major films, a lead role in the Broadway run of a Tony Award winning play, and numerous memorable roles on television. Previous to “CODA,” Kotsur had a supporting role in “The Number 23” starring Jim Carrey, and in subsequent years became known for stand-out performances in indie features. In television, Kotsur made headlines in 2019 for his acting role in “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ because along with acting, he choreographed an adapted form of sign language for the series. Other notable television roles include guest star appearances on “Criminal Minds,” “Scrubs,” “CSI: NY,” and a fan favorite recurring character on PAX’s “Sue Thomas: FB-Eye.” Much of Kotsur’s success has stemmed from his highly respected career on stage. This has included a role in the Tony Award-winning run of “Big River” on Broadway, performing at the Mark Taper Forum and in the 2015 LA Drama Critics Circle Award nominee “Spring Awakening.”

Marlee Matlin received worldwide critical acclaim for her motion picture debut in “Children of a Lesser God,” a performance the film community chose to recognize with its highest honor—the Academy Award for Best Actress. At age 21, she became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Oscar and one of only four actresses to receive that honor for a film debut. In addition to the Oscar, Matlin was honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama. Matlin made her television debut starring alongside Lee Remick in “Bridge to Silence.” She went on to star for two seasons in the series “Reasonable Doubts,” opposite Mark Harmon. She was twice nominated for both a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Dramatic Television Series, as well as the People’s Choice Award. Matlin was nominated for two Emmy Awards for her guest turns on “Seinfeld” and “Picket Fences.” She also starred in “Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story,” a movie for Lifetime Television in which she was nominated for a CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Movie or Mini-Series. Marlee broke yet another barrier with the role, playing a character that was not Deaf. Matlin later returned to CBS’s “Picket Fences” for two seasons to reprise her Emmy-nominated role. For seven seasons, Matlin starred opposite Martin Sheen, Jimmy Smits and Bradley Whitford as pollster Joey Lucas on the Emmy Award-winning series, “The West Wing.” Matlin received her third Emmy Award nomination for her work on “The Practice,” and guest-starred on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” receiving her fourth Emmy nomination for her performance. Matlin is an executive producer of the short film “Feeling Through,” which will be included in this year’s Slamdance Film Festival. It is the first film to feature a DeafBlind actor in a leading role. The film is currently up for Oscar 2021 consideration. Matlin’s New York Times best-selling autobiography “I’ll Scream Later” was published by Simon Spotlight, a division of Simon and Schuster, in April 2009. In addition, Matlin published a novel for children titled “Deaf Child Crossing” for Simon and Schuster. Matlin has been instrumental in many activities that are aiding the Deaf and hard of hearing communities — this is the first year that all Academy screeners will have closed captions. She helped get legislation passed that mandated ASL interpreters be present at all COVID-19 press conferences. She also organized a PSA that included leaders in the Deaf and hard of hearing community that aided the 20 million Deaf and hard of hearing Americans in accessing resources on how to vote in the past elections. She makes her home in the greater Los Angeles area with her husband and their four children.

Emilia Jones currently stars in Netflix’s adaptation of “Locke & Key.” In 2019, she had a leading role in the BAFTA-nominated “Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans,” opposite Sebastien Croft. In 2019, she starred in “Nuclear,” directed by Catherine Linstrum. Other feature credits include “High- Rise,” “Brimstone,” “Incident in a Ghostland” and the BBC feature-length film “What We Did on Our Holiday.” Jones began acting in 2010, at the age of eight, when she appeared in the film “One Day.” She went on to be seen in the Channel 4 drama “Utopia” and later the same year portrayed the young Queen of Years, Merry Gejelh, in the British cult-hit “Doctor Who.” In 2011, Emilia made her theatrical debut playing the princess Young Fiona in the original cast of “Shrek the Musical” at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 2013, she appeared in Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s stage adaptation of Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw.”

Daniel Durant was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. He attended mainstream schools in Duluth before transferring to the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in 8th grade. Durant graduated from MSAD in 2008 and attended RIT in Rochester, New York, and Gallaudet in Washington, DC. Durant moved to Los Angeles in 2012 to join the Deaf West Theater production of “Cyrano.” Shortly after “Cyrano,” he landed a job as a guest actor at Oakland University in Michigan working with Terp Theater. Durant played Stinger, the lead role in their production of “Police: Deaf: Near: Far.” He joined the cast of “Switched at Birth” on the ABC Family Channel in 2013 and continued in his co-starring role as the character of Matthew through the finale of the series that aired in 2017. In the fall of 2013, Durant teamed up once again with Deaf West, playing the lead role of Charlie in their production of “Flowers for Algernon.” He played the co-lead role of Moritz in the critically acclaimed 2014 Deaf West production of “Spring Awakening,” which opened in the Rosenthal Theater and moved to the Wallis Annenberg Theater in Beverly Hills in 2015. In the fall of 2015, Durant made his Broadway debut as Mortiz at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The show opened to rave reviews and ran until January 2016. In 2017, Durant joined the Norwegian company of Teater Manu for the lead role of Jonas in “Jonas and the Body,” traveling for performances in Norway and France over a seven-month period. In 2019, Durant was involved in movies, television and theater, filming “CODA,” “Silent Notes” and “You” for Netflix, as well as performing in Canada and France in the theater production of “The Black Drum.” In the spring of 2020, he once again joined forces with Deaf West to star in “Orpheé,” a reimagining of the Greek myth by surrealist French poet, playwright and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. His ongoing work includes co-leading acting workshops for Deaf students in area schools and serving as an acting teacher and coach for Deaf film camps, as well as national speaking engagements for colleges and universities. Durant has received numerous awards and recognition, including the 2016 Theater Award for Outstanding 2016 Broadway Debut Performance, Broadway.com’s Top 10 Show-Stopping Performances of the 2015-2016 Broadway Season, Huffington Post’s Top 10 Best Theatrical Performances of 2015, Theatremania.com’s 12 Best Broadway Debuts of 2015 and a 2014 Robby Award nomination for Excellence in Theater. He was also the 2014 Deaf Awareness Month Honoree for the City of Los Angeles, honoring his outstanding contributions to the arts and Deaf and hard of hearing communities of Los Angeles.

Eugenio Derbez is an actor, writer, director and producer who is one of the most influential creative forces in Latin America and one of the most recognized actors in the Latinx community in the United States. Variety named Derbez as the #1 most influential Hispanic male in the world, and he has also been named the #1 social media influencer in Mexico for the previous two years, due to his more than 45 million followers across all social media. Derbez starred with Anna Faris in MGM/Lionsgate’s remake of the classic romantic comedy “Overboard.” The movie made nearly $100 million in box office worldwide. Derbez produced the movie through his banner 3Pas Studios. Based upon the success of his previous movie, Lionsgate distributed “How to Be a Latin Lover,” starring Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell and Raquel Welch, which Derbez also produced. Prior to that, his breakout success with the Spanish-language dramedy “Instructions Not Included” qualified Derbez as a bonafide movie star. “Instructions Not Included,” which he not only directed but also co-wrote, became one of the most successful Spanish-language films ever in the U.S. and worldwide, breaking numerous box office records and grossing more than $100 million. Derbez starred in and executive produced “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” starring Eva Longoria, Michael Peña and Isabel Moner, and directed by James Bobin. He co-starred in Disney’s “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” with Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley and Morgan Freeman, directed by Lasse Hallström. He also starred in “Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, Kyle Rogers, Martin Henderson and Queen Latifah, directed by Patricia Riggen. For more than two decades prior, the television shows Derbez created and starred in, “La Familia P. Luche” and “XHDRBZ,” have become part of the popular culture in both Mexico and the U.S. via the LatinX television network Univision. His hosting duties on the Latin Grammys and the FIFA World Cup have drawn huge global audiences. Born in Mexico City, Derbez is the son of legendary cinema and television actress Sylvia Derbez. He began acting at the age of twelve in one of his country’s popular telenovelas. He holds a degree in film directing from the Mexican Institute of Cinematography and Theater, as well as a degree in acting from Televisa’s Acting School. He has also studied and trained in dance and music and has been able to showcase those talents in shows like Broadway’s “Latinologues” and the Spanish-language version musical of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” As a testament to his popularity and contributions to the arts in both languages, Derbez was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 10, 2016. It was the second most attended Hollywood star event in its history.

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