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'Deaf President Now!' | Sundance Studio 2025
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2/12/2025
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Transcript
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00:00
Well, before I was born in 1988, we had three different applicants to become president of
00:25
the world's only deaf university.
00:27
Two were deaf and one were hearing.
00:30
The community already had an expectation that the board would decide on a deaf president.
00:37
But instead, they chose the hearing candidate.
00:41
And the deaf community felt outraged.
00:44
And it was because we had had so many incredible deaf leaders who were ready to lead the university
00:49
to great success.
00:50
And it led to a week-long protest.
00:53
Well, it's the first time I've been co-directing.
00:57
And the reason is that Nile brought the film to my company and developed it as a scripted
01:04
project.
01:05
And then as we looked at that, we said, it's much better as a documentary.
01:09
And Nile said, can you help me tell this story?
01:15
Because for too long, hearing people had been telling the story of deaf people.
01:21
And so I feel like I'm more of a midwife.
01:24
I've been part of a lot of births, but this is Nile's baby.
01:28
This is their baby.
01:31
It was amazing.
01:33
It was just, wow.
01:36
It was like the Gallaudet board set themselves up for trouble.
01:43
Because we had an expectation.
01:45
We felt it was time.
01:46
And they just ignored us.
01:48
And it was like a slap in the face.
01:50
And they decided they were just going to take over and do what they wanted.
01:52
But we were not going to accept it this time.
01:56
And we were successful.
01:57
And we got what the students and the faculty all got involved.
02:01
And the staff and the media, you know, we couldn't believe it.
02:05
They were supposed to be neutral.
02:06
But they actually kind of joined in and were on our side.
02:11
And this lasted for the whole week.
02:12
And it just became one of the most peaceful and successful protests ever.
02:19
Yes, it was an amazing experience.
02:22
We never thought we'd get to that place where we were changing our world.
02:29
After staying awake for eight days and dealing with the police, dealing with the media, dealing
02:38
with the hearing community that had no idea about us, and we thought, okay, we're just
02:47
going to get a deaf president.
02:48
But it was more than that.
02:50
We were changing the world.
02:52
Deaf president now doesn't just stand for a deaf president.
02:56
It's deaf people now fighting for their rights.
02:58
We never thought we'd get to that point.
03:03
As you can see in the film, you know, the board members were very patronizing.
03:11
And they really looked down at the deaf students.
03:13
They don't know what to do.
03:14
They were saying, oh, they don't know what they're talking about.
03:17
You know, honestly, you know, university level, I mean, of course, we were kids.
03:22
But we were university level kids.
03:24
And they treated us like kindergartners.
03:27
You know, they looked down at us like, oh, these deaf kids, they don't know any better.
03:30
You know, I'm hearing, and I know what's best out there.
03:33
And these kids don't know, and I need to take care of them.
03:36
And it was very patronizing.
03:40
And obviously, the four of us and many other deaf people, the deaf community, our families,
03:45
our friends, were not going to accept that, especially our own university.
03:52
I mean, 124 years we had hearing presidents for years and years and years and years.
03:57
And we just said, no.
03:58
And the board should understand that to say, oh, wow, these students are speaking up.
04:02
Okay.
04:03
Let's listen to them.
04:04
But no, they didn't do that.
04:05
They pushed us aside and decided they knew best.
04:08
And guess what?
04:09
They were wrong.
04:10
Very wrong.
04:11
Spellman had the most patronizing attitude.
04:18
And you can see it in the film.
04:20
It's very clear.
04:22
Her whole presence with her militaristic uniform that she wore, it's just right there in front
04:29
of you.
04:30
But as Niall pointed out, we had three finalists.
04:35
With two of them being deaf.
04:38
And prior to that point, people had used the excuse that, oh, on paper, the qualifications
04:44
of the candidates were clearly that the hearing candidate was more qualified.
04:50
But that's because a deaf person had never been given the opportunity.
04:52
They'd been never given a chance to build that resume so that on paper they could prove
04:57
that a deaf person could do it and have the opportunity.
05:00
So we called a timeout.
05:02
We said, you've got to give us the opportunity.
05:04
You've got to give us the opportunity to do the job well and then allow us to succeed.
05:09
And that week, getting Jordan as our president, his achievements after he became president
05:16
speak for themselves.
05:17
And now we're on our fifth deaf president of the university, and we've proven that we're
05:21
very capable.
05:23
And that's the message we want people to understand.
05:24
And also, I want to say that Spellman, she wasn't alone.
05:29
That was just a symbol of what happened in our everyday lives.
05:34
I mean, everywhere we went, well, not everywhere, but oftentimes we would go places, and oftentimes
05:40
we would face individuals just like Spellman, especially, you know, where deaf people had
05:46
work in their workplaces, their bosses that were hearing, and, you know, they were very
05:51
ignorant with deaf people.
05:52
Maybe, you know, they treated deaf people like that.
05:55
And so, it was just, she was just a symbol of really what was happening out there in
06:00
America, in the world to deaf people.
06:05
And it's important to emphasize that it was a federally funded program for many, many
06:12
years.
06:14
At that time, their attitude was, well, we need to help you, these poor people, you know,
06:19
they're just deaf, but they're people with other people, not just the deaf people, people
06:23
with disabilities, and people from other cultures.
06:27
Everyone has that attitude that they needed help.
06:29
So if you're aware, Gallaudet received, I think, millions and millions of dollars every
06:35
year.
06:37
It sounds like it's a little ironic the federal government was giving all this money to this
06:42
institution and Gallaudet was not really training us to take over a position such as president.
06:49
You know, they had that attitude that we couldn't do it, but even though they were supposed
06:53
to be educating us, some of us were getting master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, PhDs.
06:58
And as Greg said, so far, they'd had five, since the protest, we've had five deaf presidents
07:04
and they've all been very successful.
07:06
And Gallaudet continues to grow and we still have full support of the Congress.
07:13
You know, the Deaf President Now protest was a part of a much larger movement that was
07:18
very much spurred by the actions of the deaf community in placing a deaf president as the
07:23
Gallaudet.
07:24
You know, not only did we succeed, but this protest, in fact, gave rise to the passage
07:31
of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects so many of us in the community and
07:35
allows us access in our daily lives.
07:38
Who, me?
07:39
I'm an angel.
07:41
See my halo?
07:42
Well, maybe it's a little crooked, but can I place the blame on someone?
07:48
It's Davis's fault.
07:51
He really did it.
07:52
He did his job.
07:53
He kept asking me questions and trying to pull things out of me, but really, I flipped
07:59
him off.
08:00
It's true.
08:01
Yeah, we were doing the interviews together and Niall would constantly give me better
08:07
questions and at its core, we collaborated well because we needed each other.
08:17
I am truly ignorant of the deaf experience.
08:23
I started thinking I knew a little bit because I read a lot and now at the end of this two-year
08:28
process I feel like I know less than I did.
08:31
It's a world that is rich and complex and I am an outsider to that.
08:36
And so truly what it was is Niall having a big idea and me helping him execute it.
08:44
And the great, brilliant stroke that Niall had was let's insist that the audience, deaf
08:52
and hearing, feel what it's like in the middle of the movie to be a deaf person or then a
08:58
hearing person.
08:59
The movie yanks you from one to the other and that's Niall's thing because too long
09:04
hearing people have been telling the deaf story and this movie is deaf people in this
09:11
group telling their own story.
09:14
You know, if I could add, we wanted to stay true to the theme of deaf president now.
09:23
The goal was to appoint a deaf president but even more so it was to provide a leader for
09:27
my own community.
09:28
And it was the same idea within this movie.
09:31
Our collaboration very heavily relied on the idea of deaf people being at the helm and
09:36
working in collaboration with hearing people.
09:38
We hired as many deaf people as possible on the crew and for me that was incredibly powerful.
09:43
40 deaf and hard of hearing people on our crew.
09:46
Well, first of all, Apple said this is an important story.
09:50
It's not an obvious home run commercially but they said this is a really important story.
09:54
And I believe it's because they're a leader in accessibility with their products and you
10:00
see that throughout the deaf community.
10:04
And so they felt like they wanted to be ahead of this.
10:08
So they've been great partners with us and I think it hasn't been set yet but perhaps
10:12
this spring or this June will come out.
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7:33
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