The Blind Impress*

I found this astonishing short documentary today. It comes from the New York Times website, where you can also read all about its genesis. The concise description they give of the film tells you everything you need to know:

In 1983, after years of deteriorating vision, the writer and theologian John Hull lost the last traces of light sensation. For the next three years, he kept a diary on audio-cassette of his interior world of blindness. This film is a dramatization that uses his original recordings.

Watching it at work this morning, I found myself more moved than I generally like to be in a shared office space. I guess that's my version of an "NSFW" warning. The quiet depth and beauty of Hull's observations haunted me for the rest of the day.

One of the filmmakers' inspirations was apparently Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley's documentary comprising interviews with her family members. I've come very close to renting that one a few times now, so next trip to the video store should be a quick one.

*This phrase is from "Continuing to Live," a poem by Philip Larkin that is far too excellent to have a silly pun made out of it. Richard Rorty got a lot of good mileage out of it in his equally compelling Contingency, Irony and Solidarity.