This film is part of Rentals
Notes on Blindness
James Spinney and Peter Middleton's highly original documentary uses cinematic interpretations and textured sound design to express a ‘world beyond sight.’
Director: James Spinney and Peter Middleton
Overview
Filmmakers James Spinney and Peter Middleton accomplish a seemingly impossible task – visually capturing the internal essence of blindness. In 1983, following a decade of deterioration, writer and theologian John Hull lost all traces of sight sensation and, to help him make sense of this upheaval in his life, began to record an audio diary documenting his discovery of ‘a world beyond sight.’ With scenes from his life re-created by actors miming to Hull’s original recordings, this documentary offers an illuminating and deeply personal testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal.
Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks described Hull’s diaries as ‘the most extraordinary, precise, deep and beautiful account of blindness I have ever read,’ and with them the filmmakers have crafted an insightful and innovative work.
Related
The Taste of Mango The Taste of Mango
Documentary 2023 75 mins Director: Chloe Abrahams
Sleepwalking into submerged depths of memory, a mother’s dream and a daughter’s beckoning, this fascinating film tenderly untangles the knots of the past.
2073 2073
Documentary 2024 83 mins Director: Asif Kapadia
Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia's unsettling drama-documentary delivers a powerful commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
Biopic 2024 88 mins Director: Mark Cousins
A striking portrait of an artist deserving of greater recognition, directed by Mark Cousins (A Story of Film).
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Documentary 2024 150 mins Director: Johan Grimonprez
Johan Grimonprez’s involving film essay, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.
No Other Land No Other Land
Documentary 2024 92 mins Director: Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham
This powerful documentary from a Palestinian-Israeli collective might be one of the most important films of this year.
South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic
Documentary 1919 81 mins Silent Director: Frank Hurley
An extraordinary story of survival in the wastes of Antarctica.
The Possibilities Are Endless The Possibilities Are Endless
Documentary 2014 83 mins Director: Edward Lovelace and James Hall
A moving and haunting account of singer Edwyn Collins’s long and difficult recovery from a stroke.
Power in Our Hands Power in Our Hands
Documentary 2016 75 mins Director: Angela Spielsinger
Ground-breaking documentary that uses archive film to tell the story of the British Deaf community’s fight for civil rights.
Disabled Disabled
Documentary 1967 14 mins Director: Vic Hughes
Paul Hunt, the Rosa Parks of the UK disability rights movement, talks about living in a disabling society.
Behindert Behindert
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1974 98 mins Director: Stephen Dwoskin
The account of a close, personal relationship as experienced by a disabled man.
Mandy Mandy
Drama 1952 93 mins Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Alexander Mackendrick's drama about a deaf girl and her unstable family life is remarkably unsentimental while still packing an emotional punch.
My Left Foot My Left Foot
Biopic 1989 103 mins Director: Jim Sheridan
Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his extraordinary performance as Christy Brown, the disabled Dubliner who became a writer and painter.
Jimmy's Hall Jimmy's Hall
Drama 2014 109 mins Director: Ken Loach
Ken Loach’s final fiction film is a spirited account of a 1930s Irish social club that becomes a bastion of jazz and free-thinking, angering the Church.
England Is Mine England Is Mine
Biopic 2017 94 mins Director: Mark Gill
A deeply insecure young Morrissey dreams of escaping drudgery but seeks the confidence to bloom, in this captivating account of The Smiths' genesis.
The Taste of Mango The Taste of Mango
Documentary 2023 75 mins Director: Chloe Abrahams
Sleepwalking into submerged depths of memory, a mother’s dream and a daughter’s beckoning, this fascinating film tenderly untangles the knots of the past.
2073 2073
Documentary 2024 83 mins Director: Asif Kapadia
Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia's unsettling drama-documentary delivers a powerful commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
Biopic 2024 88 mins Director: Mark Cousins
A striking portrait of an artist deserving of greater recognition, directed by Mark Cousins (A Story of Film).
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Documentary 2024 150 mins Director: Johan Grimonprez
Johan Grimonprez’s involving film essay, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.
No Other Land No Other Land
Documentary 2024 92 mins Director: Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham
This powerful documentary from a Palestinian-Israeli collective might be one of the most important films of this year.
Small Things Like These Small Things Like These
Drama 2024 99 mins Director: Tim Mielants
Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy delivers a stunning performance as a coal merchant who discovers horrific secrets about his local convent.