Opening in NYC’s Quad Cinema this Friday, October 8: GOING BLIND
After a long stint producing at ABC News 20/20, Joe Lovett set out on his own, producing and directing award-winning specials on AIDS education and cancer. He may be best known in recent years for GAY SEX IN THE ’70s, which premiered at Tribeca and revisited the growing political and sexual visibility of the gay community between Stonewall and the first reports of AIDS.
Lovett’s newest film, like one of his first independent documentaries, is a very personal film, detailing his own struggles with vision loss as he profiles a number of others who are blind or have limited vision. Serving as both a series of portraits of individuals who have not let their limited sight limit them and an awareness-building tool to educate audiences about the issues facing people like them (and Lovett himself) and about the new technologies that offer hope, GOING BLIND provides inspiration and information in equal measure. If there’s one standout in the doc, it’s Jessica Jones, a photographer whose vision loss led her to become an art teacher for impaired children – she’s a natural for the camera and could easily be the standalone subject of a follow up film.
what (not) to doc 