Blindsight
by Lucy Walker
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DVD details
Actor: Dachung, Gavin Attwood, Jeff Evans, Sally Berg, Sonam BhumtsoDirector: Lucy Walker
Brand: Unknown
Cinematographer: Gavin Struthers
Cinematographer: Keith Partridge
Cinematographer: Lucy Walker
Cinematographer: Mahyad Tousi
Producer: Steven Haft
Producer: Sybil Robson
Producer: Tricia Cooklin
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-01-13
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product features:
- Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, Blindsight follows the gripping true-life adventure of six blind Tibetan teenagers on a climbing expedition up formidable Mount Everest. Believed to be possessed by demons because of their blindness, the children are feared by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by society. Rescued by a blind educator and adventuress, the
DVD Reviews of Blindsight
DVD Review: Blindsight
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great documentary about conviction, teamwork, human spirit, conflict, and success in working together for common goals. I highly recommend it. It is a bit too long, but definitely worth seeing it through to the end.DVD Review: Blind kids walk up a hill
Summary: 1 Stars
This is a documentary about blind kids climbing a 20,000 foot mountain next to Mt. Everest. The only time we see a kid climbing is during practice when he is about 15 feet off the ground and the instructor tells him to let go and drop down. They only show the kids hiking up a hill and the inbetween camp sights. Though they have touching stories, I expect that if they did any actual climbing, they would have filmed it.DVD Review: five stars of ragged hope
Summary: 5 Stars
I will not disagree with the previous reviewers about how this film could be improved: there are some odd editing decisions, and - as the previous reviews have noted - various faults: yes, we would like to hear more from the children, and less from the adults.
But these faults may simply be the film's honest exposure of the faults in the underlying story and people: two groups of people that have never met before plan to climb a Himalayan mountain with blind children. While planning and communication in advance can avoid some problems, the real tests will come at altitude.
Whatever the film's faults - and I do not include the open questions that still niggle at me afterwards - this film has moved me like no other in years: at every turn, we see people struggling not just back to their feet after huge blows, but to the roof of the world. We also see the thousand small ways in which, over the years, they have been helped to get to this point. As a result of watching this film, I know that more is possible - and hope that I too might find my Lhakpa Ri. Thank you for reminding me to see.
DVD Review: A Disappointing Film About a Real Achievement
Summary: 3 Stars
Without taking anything away from the accomplishment of six blind teenagers and two blind adults, who climbed to more than 20,000 feet on the side of Mt. Everest, I have to say this film was a disappointment. It failed to show the difficulty of the journey, although the sighted guides talked about that. It failed to convey what it must be like for a blind person to go up a mountain. And it failed to show us what the teenagers thought they had achieved in personal growth; instead we got title cards at the end of the film telling us what these young people had accomplished professionally since the climb.
This is, unfortunately, a documentary of the "if they don't talk about it, it isn't important" school. We see lots of talk - mostly by the westerners - and very little behavior. I wanted to see how the teenagers trained for the climb. We didn't get much of that. I wanted to see how the teenagers worked with their sighted guides. We got very little of that. I wanted to see more of the kids who were attaining each day's milestone. Instead the focus of much of the film was on the weakest youngster in the group.
In the end, what we have is a journalistic report of an event, rather than a look into the lives of six blind teenagers confronting a life-changing challenge. Is the film worth seeing? Yes. It's good. It just isn't great.
DVD Review: Missiologically Helpful Film: Blindsight
Summary: 4 Stars
Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a documentary film called Blindsight. This is a story about six blind Tibetan teenagers (and their Western guides) who attempt to climb the 23,000 ft Lhakpa Ri - that's right next door to Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. And, overall, I found the film to be compelling, entertaining, moving, and thought-provoking. My attention was definitely locked in from the first scene and I was certainly moved by the story of these courageous teens. So, it's a very watchable movie, and I think you've got to start there.
Now let's talk missiology. There are a couple of missiologically significant themes in the film that are worth mentioning here. The first has to do with how Tibetan society deals with issues related to physical disability. Blindsight portrays these blind teens as outcasts from a Tibetan society that provides an explanation for their disability that blends Buddhist and folk religious ideas. Both thaumaturgical (e.g. evil spirits) and karmic (i.e. bad deeds done in past lives being punished in this life) are blamed for their blindness, resulting in a stigma that forces the children to the lowest places in the community. I was especially shocked to hear one Tibetan woman curse two of the boys by saying, "You aren't worthy to eat your father's corpse!" If I had a nickel . . .
A second missiologically significant theme is hinted at on the back of the DVD case in a quote attributed to Entertainment Weekly that mentions the "importance of journey versus destination." I think that in this regard the film does a good job of highlighting the U.S. American emphasis on accomplishment and finishing (represented well by the perspectives and attitudes of the American guides) over against an emphasis on journey. There is one memorable voiceover in which Sabriye Tenberken (the German woman who started the blind school in Lhasa where all the teens lived and studied), talks about how some of the kids had told her that they wished the climb hadn't been so rushed. They felt that there wasn't enough time to smell and feel and listen or to sing songs and tell stories to each other. This is a great example of the difference between monochronic and polychronic values - the Americans pushing the team on and on each day with specific goals and deadlines; the Tibetans wishing to sit awhile and listen to sound of the yak bells or entertain each other with stories. Well, I don't want to spoil it for you, so I won't go into any more details about how this theme is developed in the movie.
My biggest criticism of Blindsight was how the film gradually became too focused (in my opinion) on the Westerners and especially on the conflicts they were having with each other along the way. There is value here, of course, as it allows us to see how unconsciously Westerners can assume a dominant position vis-?-vis non-Westerners. It was particularly interesting to watch what seemed to be team meetings being conducted during which only the Westerners were talking, debating, and deciding. At one point an American guide said, "Well, finally I feel like we're communicating." This is in a tent full of Westerners and Tibetans, but what he meant was that the Germans and the Americans were "finally communicating." I guess I just wished that the filmmakers would have gotten more interviews and voiceovers with the teenagers, so I wouldn't have to guess so much at how they were processing the experience.
So . . . this is a good, compelling, moving and inspiring film that makes just good movie-watching on the one hand, but also provides rich fodder for missiological reflection and discussion on the other. I especially recommend it for use in classroom and training settings. People working in a folk religious or Tibetan context will find this particularly interesting as will those working cross-culturally among people with disabilities.
Description of Blindsight
Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, BLINDSIGHT follows the gripping true-life adventure of six blind Tibetan teenagers on a climbing expedition up formidable Mount Everest. Believed to be possessed by demons because of their blindness, the children are feared by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by society. Rescued by a blind educator and adventuress, the students invite a famous blind mountain climber to visit their school and let him lead them higher than they have ever been before. The result is nothing anyone could have predicted.Impaired vision presents challenges under the best of circumstances, but the Tibetan teenagers of Blindsight must also contend with poverty and discrimination. In their culture, people believe that blindness results from demonic possession or crimes committed in a past life. Fortunately, German-born Sabriye Tenberken, blind since 12, founded Lhasa's Braille Without Borders to provide them with education and self-reliance. In 2004, she invites American author Erik Weihenmayer to visit. After he lost his sight, his father encouraged him to climb mountains, and Erik would go on to scale the world's seven highest summits. Through photographs and home movies, director Lucy Walker (Devil's Playground) captures Sabriye and Erik as children; it's clear they enjoyed distinct advantages over their Tibetan counterparts. Erik believes Sabriye's students would also benefit from climbing, so they select six, pair them with guides, and begin preparations for a trek up the giant looming in their backyard: Mt. Everest (specifically Lhakpa-Ri). Things proceed according to plan until Tashi, a former beggar, starts to lag behind. Then Kyila falls prey to altitude sickness. The Western team finds themselves with a dilemma: Should they send down the sick and continue climbing, or call off the expedition? At this point, Walker's documentary shifts from a sociological study to an unlikely thriller. Though she neglects to explore some avenues in sufficient depth, like the death of Erik's mother, Blindsight is moving, suspenseful, and inspiring--and the sequence in which the kids sing "Happy Together" surely ranks as one of cinema's most transcendent. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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