CODA and silence

CODA is a film that centers around a young adult named Ruby who is the only member of her family that isn’t deaf. While the dialogue between Ruby and other characters in the film is powerful, I was moved most by the silence in the scene where Ruby performs a duet with her choir classmate during a school concert.

The choice to fade out all audio makes viewers feel what it’s like to not be able to hear anything. Throughout the film, I thought I was empathizing with Ruby’s deaf family members, but it wasn’t until this scene that I began to understand more fully how difficult it is to live with this type of disability. I commend Sian Heder, the writer and director of this film, for shining light on a topic that is not frequently discussed in popular culture.