Q&A photos by Quintin Lundy â Print courtesy of Apple TV+
Directors Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheimâs new documentary, Deaf President Now!, recounts the eight tumultuous days in 1988 where four students from Gallaudet University â the worldâs only four-year liberal arts school serving deaf and hard-of-hearing students â must find a way to lead an angry mob to change the course of history after the board of trustees announced their decision to appoint a hearing president who didnât even know American Sign Language (ASL) over several very qualified Deaf candidates.
The screening was introduced by DGA Disability Committee and Special Projects Committee Co-Chair Rachel Raimist with the assistance of ASL interpreter Gregorio Nieto.
During a Q&A moderated by Special Projects Documentary Series Subcommittee Chair Ondi Timoner with the assistance of ASL interpreters Nieto, Gabriel Gomez and Justin Maurer, DiMarco and Guggenheim spoke about their collaboration and how they were able to successfully tell this important, yet not very well known, story.
Sharing how personal the story of Deaf President Now! is to him, DiMarco said, âI didnât just go to Gallaudet University and learn it. This is a story that was passed down within my community, generation to generation. I come from an entirely Deaf family, so this was very familiar to me. When Davis agreed to co-direct this with me, even from our initial discussions, it was very clear that we wanted to stay true to the theme of Deaf President Now! and pay homage to the work they did by allowing Deaf folks to lead in telling the story on this production. We wanted to give back as much as possible to the community that made this happen.â
As an outsider in a predominantly Deaf space, Guggenheim expressed how he worked closely with DiMarco and noted, âWe couldnât have done it without each other. When you see the movie, there are moments where we go into a Deaf perspective. Youâre in [one of the Gallaudet Four] Jerry [Covell]âs room and the door is vibrating, and Iâd say, âWhat is that like now?â Nyle would describe it and then Iâd try to interpret that. And there were times when I would say, âThe music is doing this,â and try to describe this to Nyle. Weâd have to trust that the words we were using could be applied to our own experiences. It was a beautiful experience.â
DiMarco explained the thought process that went into telling the story in a way that would alter the experience for âhearingâ audiences and revealed how they played with the concept of âvisual noiseâ to force hearing audiences into a Deaf perspective.
âWe wanted to see exactly how far we could push those techniques and once we got to shooting, we started having more ideas in the edit of how to capture a specific moment.â
âWhen I direct something, Iâm always imagining an audience and where they are in each moment,â added Guggenheim. âThatâs sort of my true north. And for this we had to imagine two audiences â a hearing audience and where they are in the moment and a deaf audience and where they are in the moment.â
Deaf President Now! is DiMarcoâs directorial debut. He became a DGA member in 2024.
Guggenheimâs other directorial credits include the documentary features He Named Me Malala, It Might Get Loud and the Academy Award-winning, An Inconvenient Truth; as well as episodes of the series The Defenders, Deadwood, 24 and NYPD Blue. He was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for his 2011 feature, Waiting for Superman and again in 2023 for Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Guggenheim has been a DGA member since 1994.