Sundance 2025: ‘Deaf President Now!’ Doc is Remarkably Inspiring

Sundance 2025: ‘Deaf President Now!’ Doc is Remarkably Inspiring

by Alex Billington
February 3, 2025

There are not many documentaries these days that end with real hope and optimism. Way too many of them are extremely depressing and sad, showing how bad things have become all over the world. I’m relieved that this outstanding doc at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival shares an fascinating story that is truly inspiring. Watching this film it makes me feel like we actually can achieve change. It is possible. As long as you never give up, as long as you stick to word, stay the course, never let anyone or anything dissuade you, and fight on until they finally back down. That’s such a refreshing feeling in the face of so many other “look how awful things are” docs being made (from true crime to politics to societal problems and so on). Deaf President Now! recalls how the students at Gallaudet University in 1988 protested for one week until they finally elected the first Deaf president to run the university after 125 years of never having a Deaf president. It’s an awesome, empowering, riveting story that most people don’t know – and this doc does such a superb job of retelling it and confirming its importance as one of the greatest civil rights movements in America’s history.

Deaf President Now! is co-directed by the filmmakers Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim (who also made An Inconvenient Truth, Gracie, It Might Get Loud, Waiting for Superman, He Named Me Malala, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie) and debuted in the Premieres section at Sundance 2025. Gallaudet University (located in Washington DC) is famously the only Deaf university in the world and was originally founded in 1864, making it an extraordinary institution where Deaf people from all over the world can finally find their place, their community, and blossom as individuals while studying and growing. Unbelievably, for most of its history this important university was run by people who actually looked down upon the Deaf (and other disabled people) until everything changed in 1988. After the board once again elected a hearing president, the students rebelled. Lead by a charismatic, emotional, determined group of four leads – Greg, Tim, Jerry, and Bridgetta – they protested by shutting down & locking all the doors on campus, and resisting all day every day. Their demands: elect a Deaf president instead (there were two qualified candidates the board did not choose at first), kick out the old white lady asshole from the board, and do so without reprisal for their resistance & actions. They took on these snobby bastards and it worked. It’s so exciting to watch these kids.

The doc film is built entirely around the actual protest in 1988, presented as “this is what happened during this one week.” There are modern day interviews with the four main students who led the protests, as they recall the choices they made and retelling the story of what went down, but the film stays entirely in 1988. Which is ultimately more moving because adding in any additional context regarding current events might diminishing the inspiring power of this one story. These students are all so awesome. This badass group of 4 revolutionary Deaf students changed everything and altered the history of this university by never giving in. As the doc progresses day-by-day recounting the events, there are moments of defeat and failure, and there are times where they feel like they’ve lost the fight and have run out of energy. But they never give up. And that’s what matters the most. It’s extremely shocking how the university leaders remained smug assholes and never, ever cared to listen to the students until their movement gained international media attention. The most invigorating part of Deaf President Now! is meeting all of the students and hearing their stories, learning from them about how passionate they were for change, about how they knew it was their time to finally altered how society treated Deaf people. That tenacity, that resistance, that real power is so inspiring.

The doc does make a few interesting choices that are worth discussing. The four Deaf students are provided voices by a set of actors (Abigail Marlowe, Tim Blake Nelson, Paul Adelstein, Leland Orser). I’m curious why they decided to do this instead of just leave the silence in their interviews featuring sign language & subtitles already. I assume all of them approved of this and are okay with it, which is fine with me if that’s the case. I also find it intriguing to think that the university board only changed their tune when Greg went on national TV and spoke in defense of Deaf people. I shudder to consider that it was only this massive media attention that changed their minds, instead of the students & their impassioned protest & refusal to let them continue with the way things were. They disrupted the status quo. They refused to concede unless they elected a Deaf president. Their never-ever-give-up attitude is still deeply inspiring even today. Their fight was righteous & just. I feel so overwhelmed by how they actually pulled this off and pushed back. It’s an influential model for protests and movements – and this film should inspire people of all ages, all nationalities, all cultures, to go fight for what is right & never let any powerful people stop you. Greg, Tim, Jerry, and Bridgetta are heroes.

Alex’s Sundance 2025 Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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