In “Deaf President Now!” directors Nyle DiMarco and Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim recount eight tumultuous days in 1988 at Washington, DC’s Gallaudet University – the only Deaf university in the U.S. At the time students were protesting after the school’s board of trustees appointed a hearing president over several very qualified Deaf candidates. In the University’s 124-year history, Gallaudet had never been led by a Deaf person despite growing sentiment from the community that it was time for a Deaf leader.

For the documentary, DiMarco, a Deaf actor-advocate, and Guggenheim interviewed the four Gallaudet graduates – Greg Hlibok, Jerry Covell, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, and Tim Rarus – who were responsible for organizing the week-long movement that consisted of rallies, boycotts and protests. In the film, the foursome describe events in their own words, which are signed on-screen and spoken aloud by unseen actors. Told primarily through American Sign Language, intermixed with archival footage and experiential use of silence and sound, the Apple+ doc tells the story of a game-changing protest.

Initially, DiMarco worked with producer Jonathan King on scripted versions of the Gallaudet protests. But with countless hours of archival footage and the four movement organizers willing to sit down for interviews, DiMarco and King determined that the events were dramatic and compelling enough to make a documentary. DiMarco and King eventually approached Guggenheim, with whom King had collaborated on “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.”

Guggenheim had never co-directed a film and was initially “terrified” to make the doc.

“I think that the hearing world looked past this moment because they didn’t take the time to understand Deaf culture and Deaf history,” says Guggenheim. “It’s actua