Voices of the Deaf Community: Challenges and Narratives

Directors Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, accompanied by DiMarco’s interpreter Grey Van Pelt, discusses their new film, Deaf President Now!, with fellow Director Ondi Timoner in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, they discuss expressing the sensory content of the film with both a Deaf and hearing audience in mind, interviewing subjects in one-on-one dialogues to pull out individual sentiments surrounding the event, and working with a wealth of archival materials to gain an understanding of how the days of protest unfolded.

Screened as part of the DGA’s Documentary Series, the film recounts eight tumultuous days during which students from the world’s only liberal arts school serving the deaf and hard-of-hearing lead an angry protest to change the course of history. When Gallaudet University’s board of trustees appoints a hearing president who doesn’t know American Sign Language over several qualified Deaf candidates, the students take to the streets to speak out.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/events/2025/june2025/docseries_deafpresidentnow-0525