‘Deaf President Now!’ Documents a Landmark Change for the Deaf Community

Producers Nyle DiMarco and Emmy Award winner Jonathan King first met in 2019 at an event organized to bring together filmmakers and activists to encourage collaboration in media and social change. DiMarco told King a story that had deeply influenced him as a Deaf individual: the Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University in 1988. King had just left his job running production at Participant Media, but he remained committed to telling stories of change. They quickly realized the events and people involved in the DPN story were the heart of a movie they both passionately wanted to make.

They developed several scripted versions before reevaluating. There were countless hours of archival footage, and they saw that the real people and events were so dramatic and compelling that they might have the makings of a great documentary. They approached Academy Award winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim about collaborating on the project and the film started to evolve from there.

Immediately following the screening, Deadline’s chief film critic Pete Hammond, who can also be seen on PBS SoCal's Must See Movies, moderates an in-person Q&A with Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim.