Deaf President Now! with Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim and Ondi Timoner (Ep. 544)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Directors Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, accompanied by DiMarco’s interpreter Grey Van Pelt, discusses their new film, Deaf President Now!, with fellow Director Ondi Timoner in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, they discuss expressing the sensory content of the film with both a Deaf and hearing audience in mind, interviewing subjects in one-on-one dialogues to pull out individual sentiments surrounding the event, and working with a wealth of archival materials to gain an understanding of how the days of protest unfolded. Screened as part of the DGA’s Documentary Series, the film recounts eight tumultuous days during which students from the world’s only liberal arts school serving the deaf and hard-of-hearing lead an angry protest to change the course of history. When Gallaudet University’s board of trustees appoints a hearing president who doesn’t know American Sign Language over several qualified Deaf candidates, the students take to the streets to speak out. See photos and a summary of this event below: https://www.dga.org/events/2025/june2025/docseries_deafpresidentnow-0525

Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't know how you feel about this. When I direct something, I'm always imagining an audience and where they are in this moment.
0:06.2	And that's sort of my true north, right? And for this, we had to imagine two audiences.
0:12.0	A hearing audience and where they are in the moment, and a deaf audience and where they are in the moment.
0:17.5	And that's something I'd never experienced. Hello, and welcome back to thectors' Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:44.0	In this episode, deaf students of Gowudite University advocate for their school to appoint its first
0:49.6	deaf president in directors Nile DeMarco and Davis Guggenheim's documentary, Deaf President Now.
0:56.0	Screened as part of the DGA's documentary series, the film recounts eight tumultuous days,
1:02.0	during which students from the world's only liberal arts school serving the deaf and heart of hearing
1:07.0	lead an angry protest to change the course of history.
1:10.0	When the University Board of Trustees appoints a hearing president
1:13.9	who doesn't know American sign language over several qualified deaf candidates,
1:18.5	the students take to the streets to speak out.
1:22.6	Deaf president now is DeMarcos and Guggenheim's co-directorial debut
1:26.7	and DeMarco's first feature. Guggenheim's co-directorial debut and DeMarco's first feature.
1:29.7	Guggenheim's previous directorial credits include the DGA Award-nominated documentary features,
1:34.9	waiting for Superman, and still a Michael J. Fox movie,
1:39.2	the Academy Award-winning documentary, an inconvenient truth, and episodes of the series The Defenders, Deadwood, 24, and NYPD Blue.
1:51.0	Following the documentary series screening of the film
1:54.0	at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles,
1:56.0	DeMarco and Guggenheim spoke with director Andi Timoner
1:59.0	about filming Deaf president now.
2:02.6	Listen on for their conversation.
	...

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