Abraham Lincoln signed a charter in 1864 allowing Gallaudet University to become the first school for the Deaf that issued college degrees. Fast forward 124 years — it’s 1988 and Gallaudet University has never had a Deaf President. When a hearing woman is chosen as President over two Deaf candidates, the student body of the school spearheads a historic civil rights protest known as the Deaf President Now movement.
Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim’s documentary Deaf President Now! is at play with sound and editing. The sound drops in and out based on the chosen perspective while the editing conveys the exact energy of the protest. This is achieved working in tandem with Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020) directors Nicole Newnham and James Lebrecht, sound designers turned documentary filmmakers who so elegantly captured a disabled camp next to Woodstock and have handled the re-recording and audio engineering on Deaf President Now!, as well.
Deaf President Now! is told by the leaders of the movement. They sign their story and voiceover is provided to ensure the delivery of their message. It’s a captivating social justice story wherein you know there’s going to be a good ending. There has to be a good ending. That’s the only reason to make the documentary.
There is a good ending. Ever since Galludet University named its first Deaf President, it’s had a deaf President ever since. In the moment, they were being told it wouldn’t happen. Winning hearing candidate Elizabeth Zinser was saying the same thing generations of leadership had been saying: “Deaf people cannot function in a hearing world,” but Deaf leadership will come in the future.
The campus wanted a Deaf President Now. So they staged protests on campus, loud in their silence. The students asked for four things:
Deaf President Now (non-negotiable)
End Ms Spilman’s reign [as leader of the board of trustees]
A 51% majority of the board of trustees be Deaf
Forget about retaliation against students and faculty involved in the protest
This resulted in a series of tense meetings. The most stirring and pivotal one happened in the school gymnasium. Newly elected President Elizabeth Zinser stands before the students, explaining her commitment to the future of the institution. Someone pulls a fire alarm while she’s speaking. The Deaf students sit in, unbothered, while the hearing board members are discomforted by the piercing sound. Finally the message is as loud as the demands.
It still takes more work. It requires missteps by the new incumbent President who says derogatory things about why Deaf folks should not be in leadership. It requires a debate on more public television platforms and support from outside the institution. Any platform against inclusion is inevitably a losing platform longterm. The historic Deaf school has already decided. They will install a Deaf President. And so they do and civil rights history is made, igniting a tradition that continues today, at the world’s only University for the Deaf.