Directed by: Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim
Starring: Jerry Covell, Greg Hilbok, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Tim Rarus, and I. King Jordan
Runtime: 100 minutes
‘Deaf President Now!’ is an inspirational ‘fight the power’ documentary
“Deaf President Now!” – “The time was now to light a match.” – Jerry Covell.
“Fight the power. We’ve got to fight the powers that be.” – “Fight the Power” (1990) by Public Enemy
Gallaudet University, located in Washington D.C., is “the only university in the world specifically designed for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students.” For a week during the spring of 1988, the campus became a thunderous epicenter of students’ outrage that sparked a national debate.
Directors Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, with assistance from their crew and four former students – Jerry Covell, Greg Hilbok, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, and Tim Rarus – retell the miraculous, unrelenting fight against the system in an utterly compelling 100-minute documentary, “Deaf President Now!”
Jerry, Greg, Bridgetta, and Tim graduated from the school during various years between 1989 and 1992, and they proudly sit in front of DiMarco and Guggenheim’s camera in separate, individual interviews and walk us through the explosive particulars and waves of emotion that both ignited and poured over university grounds during that fateful week in 1988.
A beloved former professor, I. King Jordan also lends his perspective in a similar interview style as the four Gallaudet grads. All five narrators are the film’s stars in a documentary that travels back 37 years when “greed (was) good” and “sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.”
On a fateful Sunday night, the students assembled outside in mass to support two specific names as their new university president, Harvey Corson and I. King Jordan. The school’s board of trustees, tasked with nominating a new university president, had three candidates, Elisabeth Zinser, Corson, and Jordan, but Zinser was the only hearing nominee. The school, in its 124 years of existence, has never had a Deaf president, and the students want a “Deaf president now!”
The scholars soon learned that the trustees nominated Zinser as president, and they erupted!
Recounting his reaction, Tim asks, “What?”
Jerry says, “I refuse to accept this.”
Over the remaining “Deaf President Now!” runtime, DiMarco and Guggenheim offer an inside-baseball look at the Gallaudet student body’s uphill climb toward proper inclusion. The uprise feels like a 1960s passionate Vietnam War protest, but one focused on validation and representation. In 2025, the sentiment may resonate as recent federal bureaucratic scuffles to suppress or eliminate inclusion have captured the public spotlight.
To cinematically shine a light on the Gallaudet collision of wills, DiMarco, Guggenheim, and editor Michael Harte deliver an absorbing mix of 1988 on-campus video footage and still photos, timely chime-ins from the five narrators, along with effective recreations, to offer a complete view from the students’ perspective.
On occasion – and without warning – the filmmakers frequently pull the sound for a few seconds at a time throughout the presentation in successful attempts to remind hearing audiences that the student body and our narrators are Deaf. While watching the doc, one might sit a bit higher and lean forward towards the screen during these moments, and this is especially true during a real-life footage 3rd-act scene in the school’s gymnasium. The movie even briefly displays the eye-opening workings of a simple campus fire alarm, as another communicative tool for the audience, during this three-alarm university protest.
“Deaf President Now!” isn’t a David vs. Goliath tale. It’s more a French Revolution-like story with the masses fighting for fairness and justice against the monarchists, and in this 20th-century version, Gallaudet University’s board of trustees chair, Jane Bassett Spilman, is the all-controlling queen.
Ms. Spilman, seemingly affluent and complete with a Nancy Reagan hairstyle, is the obvious villain and the primary face behind Zinser’s ascension. Spilman smirks in front of the student assembly - appearing full of condescension - while they raise their ire, and she becomes the explosive center of controversy over a reported cutting, callous statement about the students that she later denies.
Choosing a side between the Gallaudet kids (and now adults) and the administration is as evident as picking Harry Potter over Voldemort, but to be fair, the documentary avoids exploring Spilman’s reasoning or reaching out to those related to Spilman about her obviously erroneous view in 1988. An on-screen confessional of regret would add value to the documentary, but the points of view are so crystal clear that, perhaps, this perspective isn’t ultimately needed.
One perspective that is wholly welcomed is reaching out to our lead narrators as they explain their histories of growing up Deaf. Sprinkled throughout the documentary, they share their personal histories, which deliver inspiration and support while also revealing hardships. These reveals offer a deeper understanding of the community and the former students’ environmental makeup, which is now reflected in their adult Gen X characters, as we also affectionately look back at their 80s hairstyles and fashion choices through the reams of on-campus footage.
“Deaf President Now!” details the Gallaudet students’ staggering grind and passionate on-foot, on-campus, on-camera, in-the-press groundswell that captured the attention of a nation with equal portions of the broad, sweeping hope for change and the intimate, personal struggles and smiles from Jerry, Greg, Bridgetta, Tim, and I. King. Students may have lit a figurative match in 1988, but watch this movie to discover if everyone – inside and outside of Gallaudet - can embrace the warm, inviting glow of righteousness.
Jeff’s ranking
3.5/4 stars
