THE STORY – During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead an angry mob to change the course of history.
THE CAST – N/A
THE TEAM – Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim (Directors)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
There’s a moment in the illuminating and inspiring documentary “Deaf President Now!” that so eloquently drives home the point of a tiring week at the world’s first deaf and hard-of-hearing university. In 1988, after a tumultuous few days of protest at Gallaudet University, Greg Hlibok, the student body president, was on his way to do a national interview and share why his fellow students were fighting back against the appointment of a non-deaf president. In the car, he put on his hearing aid to hear the sounds, albeit muffled, around him when he arrived in the studio. But right before he was set to go on air, he took off his device and returned to the silence. In that moment, he realized that he was there not just to represent himself but all the students of his school and millions of deaf people around the nation who have been told time and time again that they can’t do something just because of their condition. During that interview, he proved, “Yes, we can.”
Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim’s “Deaf President Now!” is a crowd-pleasing documentary about a group of students who fought to see the type of change they wanted in the world. Their actions not only impacted students’ lives but also played a big part in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act two years later. With a compelling quartet of central leaders featured, as well as some effective sound work, the documentary will resonate with audiences in more ways than one.
On a Sunday evening in 1988, Gallaudet University students eagerly awaited the Board of Trustees’ decision on the next president. The candidates were two deaf men, including the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, I. Jordan King, and the other was Elisabeth Zinser, a former nurse who was not deaf and did not know how to sign. In the school’s 124-year history, no deaf person had ever served as president, and the students hoped that would change. Unfortunately, when the news came out that the board selected Zinser as the leader, all hell broke loose. It sparked eight days of protest, during which four students, Jerry Covell, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Tim Rarus, and Greg Hlibok, emerged as leaders.
DiMarco and Guggenheim have a vast wealth of media footage to use for the film, transporting viewers back to the scene to take in the chaos and turmoil of the board decision. Cameras caught when a fired-up Covell signed instructions to his peers, as well as students marching to a nearby hotel where the board was having dinner and making their presence known. Their main adversary in the fight is board chair Jane Bassett Spilman, who often shows a rigid attitude and disinterested mood toward the students. She, like most members of the board, is not deaf and doesn’t know what it’s like to live in their shoes, and she shows no empathy toward their fight. She’s even quoted as saying, “Deaf people are not ready to function in a hearing world.” This added even more fuel to the students’ fire. Though the film isn’t about them, it would have been interesting to hear past board members or other university officials’ reflections on this time and get their perspectives on what it was like to live through that week and see all that chaos on campus.
In addition to the archive footage, DiMarco and Guggenheim utilize recreations to show what it’s like to be a student at the university. Instead of hearing fire alarms, we see flashing lights in hallways. In certain moments, like during the first night of the protest or inside a packed gymnasium, sound cuts out, and we can only take in the energy on screen. It’s most effectively used during an impromptu meeting with the board when Spilman says it’s hard to talk over the sounds of a fire alarm and people screaming. The students and we, as viewers, don’t hear a thing.
Hundreds of students participated in the campus protest, but the directors narrow their focus to the “Gallaudet Four,” who sign during their interviews while off-screen actors were being translated for viewers. Aside from learning how they felt during that week, the film illuminates how they approach their deafness differently. Covell is the most expressive when he signs, taking up most of the screen with his hands and adding extra emphasis through facial expressions. It bothers him that Hlibok and others sign small as if they don’t want to make too much noise or draw attention to themselves. However, as seen in the film, those eight days effectively changed Hlibok as a speaker. Bourne-Firl also found herself in a bind because, while she wanted to support a female president, she also couldn’t turn her back on the deaf community. As the four peers are kept apart from each other during their talking head interviews, it allows for all their differences and tiffs to come out, making their testimonies even more intriguing. Most interesting is how they viewed King, who was not born deaf but lost his hearing in an accident. Though he signs and advocates for students, they still don’t fully consider him one of them.
Woven throughout the student interviews, are insights into how they and so many other deaf people have been mistreated by society. More often than not, people have viewed deafness as a problem to fix – including Alexander Graham Bell, whose wife and mother were deaf – and that those who could not hear needed help. The interviewees share how they were placed in speech classes where they were forced to talk and would be punished if teachers saw them sign. Covell also reflects on his father, who was deaf and never asked for an interpreter in school, mainly because he thought it was important to blend into the hearing world. Covell didn’t want to do that, which made going to Gallaudet, where he and his peers were no longer the minority, a blessing. But it also made Spilman and Zinser’s comments even more egregious, especially when the latter told students she wanted to help them, the last thing they needed.
“Deaf President Now!” sheds light on the birth of an important movement in American history, reminding viewers what’s possible when people work together to achieve something so much greater than what they’ve been told was possible. Featuring insightful commentary from those who were at the protest, along with a treasure trove of footage and information, it’s a documentary that demands to be seen for all of us to be better, more empathetic citizens of this world.
