Notes on Blindness - Review

Blindness, like Pete Middleton and James Spinney’s new film describes, is a world of its own. Keeping one’s eyes closed isn’t nearly enough to get inside the mind of someone whose sight has left them entirely, for the taking away of one sense is only a part of it. For theologian John Hull, blindness was like entering a new landscape, both eerily familiar and frighteningly alien, but by recording his experiences of losing his sight on reams upon reams of cassette tape, he worked toward understanding his condition so it would never consume him. Released a year after his death, Notes on Blindness not only draws from these recordings but ingeniously builds the entire movie around them; the result is a quietly profound peek inside an alternate universe of sensation, and how its sole occupant navigates everyday life, and above all, strengthens himself on the extraordinary power of family.