Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeff Beatty.
While the new documentary film “Deaf President Now!” covers an important event from disability rights history, its recent premiere highlights that Deaf and other disabled individuals are continuing to fight to not be treated as “less than.”
“Deaf President Now!” tells the story of the 1988 eight-day protest against a 124-year-old history of only hiring hearing presidents of Gallaudet, the world’s only Deaf university. However, it is truly a universal story about people refusing to be invisible.
“Deaf people were second class citizens,” Co-Director Nyle DiMarco, who also is a Gallaudet alumnus, model, actor, and Deaf activist, says in a meet the artist video with Sundance. “But the students were fed up. They were angry after centuries of oppression and discrimination.”
DiMarco recalls that his Deaf mother told him this story when he was seven years old. He says his mother told him: “The world is designed for hearing people, so you need to never be afraid to stand up for yourself and what is right because your voice matters in this world. Never let the world tell you what you can’t do.”
The film tackles the idea that Deaf people are not less than those who are hearing, and illustrates that Deaf people are 100% able to participate fully in a hearing world if provided appropriate accommodations. Deaf people – and disabled people by extension – do not need nondisabled people to do things to help them. On the contrary, deaf and disabled people need to be given the opportunity to be leaders within their communities to better the world for everyone.
This is underscored when Deaf students were constantly told “I will do a lot of good for you” and “Don’t worry, I am here to help” by people who were both Hearing and did not have an understanding of Deaf culture or American Sign Language (ASL). The film showcases why looking at disability though the medical frame – that it is something to fix – is so harmful.
Taking place before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, “Deaf President Now!” seamlessly utilizes archival footage together with contemporary interviews to educate viewers on the importance of both the protest and the value of elevating an extremely qualified individual within the community to be the school’s president. While the film is told primarily through ASL with open captions, Co-Directors Davis Guggenheim and DiMarco create an immersive environment where all viewers feel part of the protests.
The film utilizes silence and sound as a storytelling device. The use of sounds, like banging on the hood of a car and drumming, brings a hearing viewer into the world of the protest. During a Q&A following the premiere at Sundance, Guggenheim talked about the importance of showcasing “visual noise” and ensuring “both audiences be viscerally in the moment from a Deaf perspective.”
What “Deaf President Now!” achieves is being a film not for just Deaf viewers or hearing viewers. All viewers are able to enjoy the film both from a storytelling perspective and from an accessibility perspective. Many films featuring Deaf characters and cast members do not appropriately film and edit Deaf individuals. At the beginning of “Deaf President Now!” viewers are treated to footage of interviewees setting up their window for signing. This is vitally important because many directors who do not use ASL may cut off part of the signing in video frame while shooting. This has become an issue later in editing for other productions.
“Deaf President Now!” is screening at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Premieres section. In addition to screening in both Park City and Salt Lake City, this film is available online. All screenings include open captions, and this film offers audio description as well. “Deaf President Now!” has been acquired by Apple TV+.
