Attending a Movie Premier

I attended a movie premier Friday night and it was pretty cool.

It was the U.S. release of the film called Blindsight which "follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers on their journey to climb a mountain in the shadow of Everest. A dangerous journey soon becomes a seemingly impossible challenge made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind."

The U.S. release of the film was here in Chicago. Since my boss and I manage a state-wide program that serves individuals with disabilities, we attended the "event" along with lots of others in the disability community.

First of all, it was an excellent film and it'll make you cry. If a film makes me cry at an unexpected moment and make a fool of myself in front of my boss, then I like it.

However, I cannot express too many superlatives about it. It wasn't your typical Disney or Touchstone feel-good movie. You'll probably only find this film at your out-of-the-way movie houses, but you never know. Put it on your "wanted" list with Netflix or Tivo.

It was also nice to be with lots of assistance doggies around. All assistance dogs are so appealing and I always want to pet them or say "hey, doggie!" However, we have to remember that they're "on duty" and not to be distracted.

You might wonder how blind people attend a movie. Well, since this particular film was about blind teenagers, there was "assistive technology" available -- wireless headphones into which a narrator described the scenes and what was happening in the film.

I tried using the headphones for a while but it was too distracting for me since I kept "sighting" the film. Also, much of the film was in Tibetan with English subtitles. I kept watching the screen for the subtitles rather than relying on the narrator.

Afterward, one of the main characters featured in the film, Sabriye Tenberken, a blind German woman who was also a mountain climber/social worker, gave a speech and engaged the audience in a question-and-answer.

She also gave us all an opportunity to adopt a Tibetan yak for five hundred dollars, so there's that.

Anyway, if any of you have a chance at all of seeing Blindsight, by all means do so. It will definitely give you a new outlook on life and raise your human spirit to unknown heights. . . .

. . . Not that I'm into any of that.

After all, I had to "network" with people in the lobby afterward.