'Deaf President Now!' | Sundance Studio 2025 - video Dailymotion

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00:00Well, before I was born in 1988, we had three different applicants to become president of

00:25the world's only deaf university.

00:27Two were deaf and one were hearing.

00:30The community already had an expectation that the board would decide on a deaf president.

00:37But instead, they chose the hearing candidate.

00:41And the deaf community felt outraged.

00:44And it was because we had had so many incredible deaf leaders who were ready to lead the university

00:49to great success.

00:50And it led to a week-long protest.

00:53Well, it's the first time I've been co-directing.

00:57And the reason is that Nile brought the film to my company and developed it as a scripted

01:04project.

01:05And then as we looked at that, we said, it's much better as a documentary.

01:09And Nile said, can you help me tell this story?

01:15Because for too long, hearing people had been telling the story of deaf people.

01:21And so I feel like I'm more of a midwife.

01:24I've been part of a lot of births, but this is Nile's baby.

01:28This is their baby.

01:31It was amazing.

01:33It was just, wow.

01:36It was like the Gallaudet board set themselves up for trouble.

01:43Because we had an expectation.

01:45We felt it was time.

01:46And they just ignored us.

01:48And it was like a slap in the face.

01:50And they decided they were just going to take over and do what they wanted.

01:52But we were not going to accept it this time.

01:56And we were successful.

01:57And we got what the students and the faculty all got involved.

02:01And the staff and the media, you know, we couldn't believe it.

02:05They were supposed to be neutral.

02:06But they actually kind of joined in and were on our side.

02:11And this lasted for the whole week.

02:12And it just became one of the most peaceful and successful protests ever.

02:19Yes, it was an amazing experience.

02:22We never thought we'd get to that place where we were changing our world.

02:29After staying awake for eight days and dealing with the police, dealing with the media, dealing

02:38with the hearing community that had no idea about us, and we thought, okay, we're just

02:47going to get a deaf president.

02:48But it was more than that.

02:50We were changing the world.

02:52Deaf president now doesn't just stand for a deaf president.

02:56It's deaf people now fighting for their rights.

02:58We never thought we'd get to that point.

03:03As you can see in the film, you know, the board members were very patronizing.

03:11And they really looked down at the deaf students.

03:13They don't know what to do.

03:14They were saying, oh, they don't know what they're talking about.

03:17You know, honestly, you know, university level, I mean, of course, we were kids.

03:22But we were university level kids.

03:24And they treated us like kindergartners.

03:27You know, they looked down at us like, oh, these deaf kids, they don't know any better.

03:30You know, I'm hearing, and I know what's best out there.

03:33And these kids don't know, and I need to take care of them.

03:36And it was very patronizing.

03:40And obviously, the four of us and many other deaf people, the deaf community, our families,

03:45our friends, were not going to accept that, especially our own university.

03:52I mean, 124 years we had hearing presidents for years and years and years and years.

03:57And we just said, no.

03:58And the board should understand that to say, oh, wow, these students are speaking up.

04:02Okay.

04:03Let's listen to them.

04:04But no, they didn't do that.

04:05They pushed us aside and decided they knew best.

04:08And guess what?

04:09They were wrong.

04:10Very wrong.

04:11Spellman had the most patronizing attitude.

04:18And you can see it in the film.

04:20It's very clear.

04:22Her whole presence with her militaristic uniform that she wore, it's just right there in front

04:29of you.

04:30But as Niall pointed out, we had three finalists.

04:35With two of them being deaf.

04:38And prior to that point, people had used the excuse that, oh, on paper, the qualifications

04:44of the candidates were clearly that the hearing candidate was more qualified.

04:50But that's because a deaf person had never been given the opportunity.

04:52They'd been never given a chance to build that resume so that on paper they could prove

04:57that a deaf person could do it and have the opportunity.

05:00So we called a timeout.

05:02We said, you've got to give us the opportunity.

05:04You've got to give us the opportunity to do the job well and then allow us to succeed.

05:09And that week, getting Jordan as our president, his achievements after he became president

05:16speak for themselves.

05:17And now we're on our fifth deaf president of the university, and we've proven that we're

05:21very capable.

05:23And that's the message we want people to understand.

05:24And also, I want to say that Spellman, she wasn't alone.

05:29That was just a symbol of what happened in our everyday lives.

05:34I mean, everywhere we went, well, not everywhere, but oftentimes we would go places, and oftentimes

05:40we would face individuals just like Spellman, especially, you know, where deaf people had

05:46work in their workplaces, their bosses that were hearing, and, you know, they were very

05:51ignorant with deaf people.

05:52Maybe, you know, they treated deaf people like that.

05:55And so, it was just, she was just a symbol of really what was happening out there in

06:00America, in the world to deaf people.

06:05And it's important to emphasize that it was a federally funded program for many, many

06:12years.

06:14At that time, their attitude was, well, we need to help you, these poor people, you know,

06:19they're just deaf, but they're people with other people, not just the deaf people, people

06:23with disabilities, and people from other cultures.

06:27Everyone has that attitude that they needed help.

06:29So if you're aware, Gallaudet received, I think, millions and millions of dollars every

06:35year.

06:37It sounds like it's a little ironic the federal government was giving all this money to this

06:42institution and Gallaudet was not really training us to take over a position such as president.

06:49You know, they had that attitude that we couldn't do it, but even though they were supposed

06:53to be educating us, some of us were getting master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, PhDs.

06:58And as Greg said, so far, they'd had five, since the protest, we've had five deaf presidents

07:04and they've all been very successful.

07:06And Gallaudet continues to grow and we still have full support of the Congress.

07:13You know, the Deaf President Now protest was a part of a much larger movement that was

07:18very much spurred by the actions of the deaf community in placing a deaf president as the

07:23Gallaudet.

07:24You know, not only did we succeed, but this protest, in fact, gave rise to the passage

07:31of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects so many of us in the community and

07:35allows us access in our daily lives.

07:38Who, me?

07:39I'm an angel.

07:41See my halo?

07:42Well, maybe it's a little crooked, but can I place the blame on someone?

07:48It's Davis's fault.

07:51He really did it.

07:52He did his job.

07:53He kept asking me questions and trying to pull things out of me, but really, I flipped

07:59him off.

08:00It's true.

08:01Yeah, we were doing the interviews together and Niall would constantly give me better

08:07questions and at its core, we collaborated well because we needed each other.

08:17I am truly ignorant of the deaf experience.

08:23I started thinking I knew a little bit because I read a lot and now at the end of this two-year

08:28process I feel like I know less than I did.

08:31It's a world that is rich and complex and I am an outsider to that.

08:36And so truly what it was is Niall having a big idea and me helping him execute it.

08:44And the great, brilliant stroke that Niall had was let's insist that the audience, deaf

08:52and hearing, feel what it's like in the middle of the movie to be a deaf person or then a

08:58hearing person.

08:59The movie yanks you from one to the other and that's Niall's thing because too long

09:04hearing people have been telling the deaf story and this movie is deaf people in this

09:11group telling their own story.

09:14You know, if I could add, we wanted to stay true to the theme of deaf president now.

09:23The goal was to appoint a deaf president but even more so it was to provide a leader for

09:27my own community.

09:28And it was the same idea within this movie.

09:31Our collaboration very heavily relied on the idea of deaf people being at the helm and

09:36working in collaboration with hearing people.

09:38We hired as many deaf people as possible on the crew and for me that was incredibly powerful.

09:4340 deaf and hard of hearing people on our crew.

09:46Well, first of all, Apple said this is an important story.

09:50It's not an obvious home run commercially but they said this is a really important story.

09:54And I believe it's because they're a leader in accessibility with their products and you

10:00see that throughout the deaf community.

10:04And so they felt like they wanted to be ahead of this.

10:08So they've been great partners with us and I think it hasn't been set yet but perhaps

10:12this spring or this June will come out.

'Deaf President Now!' | Sundance Studio 2025

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