In 2001, mountain climber Erik Weihenayer became the first blind man to summit Mt. Everest. An extraordinary achievement, blind educator and Braille Without Borders founder Sabriye Tenberken was immediately impressed and inspired upon hearing the news. For her, this was affirmation that just because a person did not have the gift of sight did not mean they should be relegated to the background, this story of monumental human achievement just the one she needed to give her Tibetan students hope in a seemingly uncaring (and at times openly hostile) environment.

In 2004, Weihenayer came to Lhasa, Tibet with an ambitious proposal to climb one of Mt. Everest’s sister summits, the 23,000-foot Lhakpa Ri, with Tenberken and six of her most physically able students. This expedition would challenge the kids both physically and mentally, and if successful could prove to both them and to the world that, just because a person is blind, doesn’t mean they still can’t find the strength to conquer any and all challenges thrown in front of them.

There are many wonderful and amazing things to be taken from director Lucy Walker’s new documentary Blindsight, not the least of which is its harrowingly touching celebration of the indomitable nature of the human spirit. This is a movie that is at once beautiful and inspiring, the emotions running though each of its many layers rippling like massive tidal pools tearing apart massive ancient glaciers. It is a truly one-of-a-kind story of survival, persistence and achievement, and by the time it was over I was moved so thoroughly beyond words I almost didn’t know what to do next.

One thing I do know after watching the film, don’t ever go blind in Tibet. The level of intolerance (mostly through generations of misunderstanding and lack of education) is pretty much stunning, and watching these kids relate stories of abuse and societal revulsion is absolutely sickening. While I realize I am placing some of my own belief systems inside a culture I know little to nothing about, these moments of recollection are still incredibly difficult to fathom (let alone understand), and even trying to keep my own personal feelings in check I couldn’t help but feel my stomach recoil in horror time and time again.

Be that as it may, there are some directions Walker chooses to go that don’t exactly fit. The chief amongst these is a side trip to China to reunite one of the young climbers with the family who abandoned him, and while there is definitely merit in bringing this drama to light there’s nowhere near enough in the way of time or focus to give these scenes the importance they rightly deserve. Instead, these scenes feel forced and more than a bit self-indulgent, and every time the film shifted to this story instead of focusing upon the climbers’ attempts to conquer Lhakpa Ri my interest couldn’t help but waiver.

Still, overall Blindsight is still an inspired bit of documentary filmmaking. The journey taken here is, if you’ll pardon the pun, stratospheric, the emotional highs achieved watching this group attempt to make their goals as thrilling and as exhilarating as any run of the mill Hollywood blockbuster.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Blindsight Theatrical Trailer