‘Deaf President Now’ Movie In Works Based On Watershed Protests At Gallaudet University
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: The story of the real-life 1988 protests at all-deaf Gallaudet University that became a watershed moment for the deaf community in the U.S.
is being turned into a feature film. Jules Dameron, a Gallaudet alum, wrote and will direct Deaf President Now, which is now casting and aims to begin production later this year.Sam Sokolow (Nat Geo’s Genius) and Steven Posen are producing the pic along with PhilmCo’s Jonathan Prince and Peter Samuelson.
Amy Lanier and Bruce Daitch are executive producing. The team said it is committed to a mixed ASL/English-language production. “We intend this to be the first mainstream film to be fully integrated with a deaf-oriented crew and set,” Posen said.Posen originated the project with Dameron to tell the story behind the uprising at the Washington DC university, at the time the only all-deaf college in the U.S.
The student-led protests stemmed from the university’s board of trustees choosing the sole hearing candidate among a group of three to be the school’s new president, despite growing sentiment from the community during the recruitment process that it was time for a deaf leader.The protests, and its phrase “Deaf President Now,” shut down the campus, drew supporters from around the country and garnered national attention via the likes of ABC’s Good Morning America and Nightline. (Marlee Matlin, who had won the Oscar for Children of a Lesser God two years earlier and now stars on the current Best Picture Oscar-nominated CODA, was among those interviewed on that Nightline.)After eight days, all the protesters’ demands were met, with the president-elect, Elisabeth Zinser, resigning, and I.
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