GLOUCESTER , MASS. (WHDH) - Academy award darling “CODA” scooped up three Oscars Sunday night, including one for Best Picture. It is just one of the many ways the film is opening the eyes and ears to an entire community’s perspective.
The movie is being praised nationwide for its inclusivity and representation of the hearing-impaired community. Local actors featured in the film say it also gives people another perspective on the life of families who make their living off the Massachusetts coastline.
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“I never really sat down and thought about how hearing-impaired people live,” said Gloucester Harbormaster, T.J. Ciarametaro.
Ciarametaro said he has filled smaller movie roles before, but never a role to this caliber. He said writer and director Sian Heder handed him the script and asked for his opinion in how the community should be portrayed. Heder then asked him to fill one of those roles.
Ciarametaro said the movie struck a chord with so many in the town who can relate to the main character, Ruby who finds herself caught between her family’s fishing business and her dreams of going to Berklee School of Music.
“It’s always a battle because you want to make your family proud but you want to live your own life,” he explained.
At Rose’s Marine, Paul Vitale has been fishing from the Angela Rose for more than 20 years. His boat was featured throughout the movie as the Rossi family vessel and he said he never dreamed of being a part of something like this.
“It’s just amazing to be part of that. It really hasn’t hit me yet,” he said.
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Down the street at Pratty’s, where a big bar scene in the movie was filmed, the staff are no strangers to playing a starring role in big movie moments.
“It was a genuine, authentic movie that really hit home with a lot of people,” said General manager Nick Pratt.
He said that the movie’s message hit home with so many people who walk through his doors every day.
“Whether it’s a fisherman in a seaside village or a farmer in the middle of the country, it’s decisions people have to make every single day,” he said.
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