There are parts in the delightful new documentary Blink that makes you question the choices made by the directors Daniel Roher and Edmund Stenson. This is especially if they should have explored more the pathos of the stories that they have. More so as this is the film where two Montreal parents discover that three of their four children who are all pre-teens are gradually going blind. It would have been easy to do since the footage embodied the extremities of the sobering reality for those children, with a ticking clock lovingly crushed. But instead of heightening the tension of the running time or wringing heartbreak at the remaining cruel destiny awaiting the three cherubic innocents, Roher and Stenson choose a different and more fulfilling path.
This, it may be added, is as simple as it is practical — or at any rate, apparent efforts to do so — given what parents Edith and eacute and s & iacute in response to their three children & rsquo s tragic diagnosis: There was a year-long trip around the world. However, it might be how it goes up to sea down then down threes’ yours depends take within about sweeps. Even though it’s understandable how the arcing trajectory of the families may lure the audience in the very end, the film does not reach for a haymaker: a moving – rather than tear jerking – family oriented narrative on the wonderful parents and their courageous kids. There’s also a very interesting idea that everyone, without exception, is somehow devoid of the appreciation of the earth’s beauty.
The previous documentary Roher worked on is 2022’s Navalny, where he tells the story of the poisoning of the oppositional Russian politician Alexey Navalny, which latter earned him a glory in the Academy Awards. If you thought that Jaw is the worst of the tragedy, think again! Blink is a tragedy of a different dance, one that evolves into something very exquisite and positive. The first encounter with Lemay-Pelletier family shows them as pretty mundane and typical family. Mother Edith has managed to “accept chaos” as she has four kids 11-year-old Mia, nine-year-old Léo, six-year-old Colin and four-year-old Laurent all running inside the house. It was easy for him to go “dumb” when Sebastian discovered that latter three was going to go blind due to the rare genetic disease retinitis pigmentosa and the other parents naturally had a lot of anger and sadness as to why they do.
As for the children, neither Colin nor Laurent truly understands what being blind entails, although Colin assumes it means he can acquire a mewling feline. Being blind does not imply that Edmund or Sebastien has a limited period to exhibit all the shapes, hues, and complications of our world to the afflicted trio. They therefore required their children to formulate an experience wish-list and then set off on a globe-spanning journey that would conjoin the entire clan in Oman, Egypt, Nepal, Ecuador, Thailand, and so many other exotic places.
Except for a few on–set interviews with Edith and Sébastien, which were the only interviews captured on the spot, the events were allowed to take their natural course by directors Roher and Stenson. The subjects were filmed at children’s heights, and it was possible to be impressed with the power of Mia, Colin and Laurent, and their happiness when riding a horse in Mongolia, or when surfboarding in Indonesia or, one of the most quirky things in their adventures, having juice sitting on a camel.
Children cannot convey their deep-rooted sentiments, and Sébastien does not have much information to offer. Therefore, most of the emotional burden during the period is shouldered by the articulate Edith, some sympathy the audience has for the family and some snapshots with the children. the gaze of Laurent on some butterfly is also sobering, perhaps for the last time, we feel, and then he sadly states that he won’t be able to look at any photos from his birthday because he will be blind. And Colin’s brave selfless act of saying goodbye to a dog he has just spent time with in the Himalayas might actually drench his viewers with tears too.
Roher and Stenson correctly do not burden us with the logistical and subsequent cost issues when touring two dozen countries within the span of a year, living on 200 dollars a day. Any logical person would wonder why one would include the scene where the family gets stranded on an aerial tram, midair, over an Ecuadorian jungle and for nine and a half long hours – starting off in the bright afternoon to the gloomy dark of evening. Other than this, other contributors such as Ryan Mullins and Miranda Yousef do not shove argumentations heroically, rather remaining in the back backstage of events where encroaching simple blindness becomes hampering such as in Colin’s case where he just stops in the middle of the disc soccer match because he has poor eyesight (“I have a technique” he declares before reentering the game).
The breathtaking sight of Blink has its appeal, and with more powerful images like that of a mountain in the Himalayas or a hot-air balloon ride in Ecuador, one can only wonder if it’s the last time Mia, Colin, and Laurent are likely to behold such sights again. Certain sections of the film have the children interacting with some striking characters such as those living in the far-flung regions of the Amazon which gives Edith some hope that her children will not lose the ability to reach out to others even in the dark.
At The National Geographic, Blink is one headset saw that is quite respectable in the middle level range of many skilful documentaries that have featured. Free Solo, the Oscar-winning and nominated Fire of Love, The Cave, and others, To seek the happiness and wellbeing of the family and the child and not meet its end by dramatizing or presenting the common difficulties of any family, Roher and Stenson seem to be convincing that actually it would be -rather frustrating. They also urge us to engulf ourselves in the ‘human-ness’ and as much of the world as we happen to be able to do since the time would come that all the light would vanish one day and all will be darkness.
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