Notes on Blindness

Dir: James Spinney, Peter Middleton

2016

****

I'm a little bit on the fence when it comes to documentary dramas. Actors lip-syncing to recorded audio tapes made in the early 80s is something that I thought would either work or go horribly wrong. It worked, incredibly well in fact, which surprised me given my general dislike of verbatim theatre. However, even though I love my films, I do prefer John Hull's book Touching the Rock. Hull had had problems with his sight since birth but in 1982 it deteriorated rapidly and total blindness was declared unavoidable by his doctors. Hull, a professor of theology, decided that recording his feelings and the changes he was encountering could be of use to others who would go through the same experience in the future. He also hoped to find the task therapeutic in some way, whether this was the case or not is never really that clear in my opinion but his legacy is undeniable. His book, which is a collection of years’ worth of recordings is wonderful, unique and goes into great detail, much of which is understandably missing in the film given the time constraints you'd expect from a feature film, but there is something wonderful about hearing his actual voice. It's not a 'best of' as such but it is an intelligent selection of the important bits, without anything too whimsical. The facts remain, as do the hugely personal and emotional additions. It's a great film but I would argue that it is a companion piece in many respects and one should always read the book first. I don't feel the film actually brought life to the book or the tapes and in many respects it seems odd that there is a need to visualize a story that is about blindness but as Hull said himself "to gain our full humanity, blind people and sighted people need to see each other" and this docudrama certainly lends its hand to that idea. What I found most profound about Hull's account is his brutal honesty. We learn a little about what he first felt when he lost his sight completely, the film explores the changes in his day to day life that wouldn't be considered by sighted people and we hear first-hand how he eventually came to conquer his blindness. He pretty much invented and developed the audio-book and is an inspiration to both blind and sighted people alike, he carried on teaching, went travelling and showed that it was entirely possible to carry on without sight in the modern world. However, when pondering the question on whether he'd want his sight back after all that he had achieved he declared he would, without question. I liken James Spinney and Peter Middleton's film to Grant Gee's 2012 documentary Patience(After Sebald), although I wish they had adopted the same structure and had been a little more analytical and a little less dreamy but all in all, a monumental achievement.