By John Corrado
The 2025 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 24th to May 4th in Toronto
In their documentary Deaf President Now!, co-directors Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim take us back to the student protests to elect the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University, offering a fantastic, cinematically rendered time capsule of this important disability rights movement.
DiMarco and Guggenheim hone in on the week in 1988, when students at the historic university for the Deaf shut down the campus in protest of Elisabeth Zinser – a hearing woman – having been elected president over two Deaf men. The protests were inflamed by board chairman Jane Bassett Spilman telling the crowd of students gathered outside that Deaf people were “not ready to function in a hearing world,” a derogatory statement that pushed them into action.
Through a mix of archival footage and interviews with the movement’s key leaders, including student organizers Jerry Covell, Greg Hlibok, Tim Rarus and Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, the film offers perhaps the definitive oral history of these events, told in their own words. The other key player is I. King Jordan, a dean at the university who was passed over for president in favour of Zinser, and was being approached by both sides who wanted to gain his support during the conflict.
The filmmakers keep a tight focus on these few days, presenting the events as they unfolded in chronological order, with students blockading the campus and playing hardball with the board. Their actions would lead to lasting changes within the Deaf and disabled communities, including the passage of the ADA two years later. The film itself is engaging and powerful, as the co-directors employ some unique sound design and strong editing choices to further draw us in to this compelling moment in disability history.
Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)
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