Notes on Blindness (Peter Middleton, James Spinney, UK/France, 2016)

A taped journal that theologian John Hull (1935–2015) kept after the onset of blindness in 1980 forms the basis of this elegant and moving depiction of struggle and transcendence. We watch the writer—played by an actor but with Hull’s own voice providing the audio—as he learns to negotiate his condition and endures a crisis of faith. Sublime sound design further enhances this evocative documentary, making manifest Hull’s discovery that the loss of one sense leads to the sharpening of others.

Part of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival at the BAMPFA!