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Discover the Apps Behind CODA
The Apple Original film CODA won an Oscar for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is the first motion picture starring a predominantly Deaf cast in leading roles to win Best Picture.
Like many teens, Ruby Rossi is caught between two worlds. She dreams of becoming a singer, but her family wants her to help with their struggling fishing business.
She has another responsibility too: serving as de facto interpreter for her parents and brother, who are deaf.
Written and directed by Sian Heder, CODA (short for “child of deaf adults”) is one of only a handful of movies that center on a deaf family. After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival, it became the most awarded film in the festival’s history and went on to garner multiple other awards, including an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Through American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, we spoke with Anne Tomasetti and Alexandria Wailes, CODA’s directors of artistic sign language, about the apps that helped them bring the film to life, the best apps for learning ASL, and more.
To start, what did working on CODA mean to you?
Tomasetti: There are maybe five movies that have represented deaf families onscreen, ever. So to see so many deaf people together, making a film, allowing our humanity to come through on set and onscreen...This just doesn’t happen. It was a gift.
Wailes: This film is a special story for our community because it highlights a CODA experience, and it’s a universal story. The film shows several complex deaf characters, generational views, and identity journeys. Anyone watching—including those outside the Deaf community—can say, “That’s the human journey.”
Tomasetti: With big groups of hearing people, I use Ava—I just put my phone on the table and see what I can catch as it transcribes what people are saying. My go-to app during production was Notability. I used it to make notes on scripts and videos. Around town and the city, I used Cardzilla and Make It Big.
Editors’ tip: CODA’s director, actors, cinematographers, and ASL interpreters used Notability’s digital pens and highlighters to annotate the script on set. You can do the same when collaborating on a document and easily search both typed and handwritten notes.
Wailes: My involvement in the film was during the months leading up to principal photography. Personally, I default to using Cardzilla. Because of masks, full facial expressions are obscured. Even when signing, half the grammar takes place on our faces. To have half of the grammar of our language missing in daily life is pretty difficult. Cardzilla has been very useful in communicating with non-ASL users.
Editors’ tip: Cardzilla and Make It Big enlarge the text and emoji you type to fill the screen of your iPhone or iPad, so others can read it at a distance. On the set of CODA, the director used Make It Big to share notes with actors from behind the camera. Cool feature: When you shake your device, the background and text in Make It Big will flash—handy for grabbing someone’s attention.
How can the hearing community support the Deaf community?
Wailes: Simply asking a deaf person about the best way to communicate with them means a lot. Maybe they want to sign; maybe they’d rather write text on a phone. Creating that space gives some empowerment back, opens up the communication, and keeps us from having to live under the expectation that as deaf people we will do all the work for you.
Tomasetti: Ask yourself why you want to be involved in the Deaf community. If you think there’s something fascinating about Deaf culture and our people, that’s great. But do your part—learn some sign language. Hopefully it stays with you and isn’t only a novelty. Don’t be that visitor who learns a couple of signs and then disappears. It feels a lot more respectful to our community when visitors invest in being more than just gawkers.
Which apps do you recommend for learning sign language?
Wailes: Marlee Signs and The ASL App are great places to start. This is an interactive language, and if you can have tutorials via virtual platforms in real time or in person, that’s always the best. You can only learn so much from still images and videos.
Editors’ tip: Academy Award–winning actor and CODA star Marlee Matlin is featured in Marlee Signs’ instructional ASL videos. Search for a specific word or phrase to watch Matlin spell it out, letter by letter. Just getting started with ASL? Turn on the slow-motion option as you sign along with her.
What do you think is the future of movies centered on the Deaf community?
Tomasetti: We are creating so much content, more than ever before. We’ve seized collaborative opportunities over video-chat apps like Zoom. We do need allies and resources to get our content out there. We want more training and exposure to how the industry works. We have so many stories to tell, but there are simply not as many opportunities available to us. So I’m hoping that’ll change, that we’ll have that “in.”
Listen to “A Playlist Curated by Deaf People” on Apple Music for a collection of songs inspired by the Apple Original film CODA.