Blink
The threat of blindness inspires an extraordinary world trip in Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher’s unusual documentary.
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
It is quite common to come across a documentary film that invites viewers to go on a trip in which they accompany travellers undertaking some journey in distant lands. Nor is it that unusual to find a documentary study that deals with people coming to terms with living in a family in which someone is coping with a medical condition that is irreversible. What is surprising is to find a single work that incorporates both of these very different elements and it's that which is attempted in Blink, a film by Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher. The latter is best known for his no holds barred documentary Navalny (2022) and indeed two of that film’s four producers are again involved here, but the blend of material in Blink means that it is a work less harsh than one might expect.
The subject matter here concerns a Canadian couple, Édith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier who have four young children and are shocked when a diagnosis confirms that three of them are suffering from degenerative retinitis pigmentation, an impairment of the cells in the retina which means that the three children will inevitably become blind. At the time of this discovery the oldest child, Mia, is eleven, Colin is six and Laurent only four and the only one who has escaped this genetic condition is nine-year-old Leo. It so happens that Sébastien has been employed by a company in which he was a shareholder and it has recently been sold. Consequently, this enables them to pay for a year-long world trip albeit one carefully budgeted. This is undertaken on the basis that if the family of six do this straight away the three children destined to lose their sight will see such wonderful things that they will remain potent memories for them in later years.
As the film follows them on this expedition, the places most strongly featured are Malaysia, Nepal, the White Desert in Egypt and that part of Ecuador which is in the Amazon basin. But these destinations feature less for their own sake than because they represent locations where a long bucket list prepared by the children can best be met. That list may include a wish to eat ice creams but it also features at number 23 ‘Drink juice on a camel’ and at number 33 ‘Explore a rainforest’. There is also a desire to get to know foreign people and the visit to the Amazon involves becoming familiar with the Achuar community.
Inevitably Blink never lets us forget the medical condition but for which the trip would never have been made but, aided by the fine photography of Jean-Sébastien Francoeur, the film delights in the locations that the family visit and Tamar-kali’s music score contributes to what could be regarded as a light touch. Blink is what I would call a friendly work and that may be exactly what some viewers want in this context. It is mainly the parents, the mother in particular, who take the lead in commenting on what we see (as Canadians they speak sometimes in English and at others in French accompanied by subtitles). But it is often the images of the children playing together and eventually linking up with Achuar youngsters which simultaneously capture their enjoyment of the moment and express the poignancy of how different the future will be for them.
The film also makes it apparent that this is a particularly happy family. Yet there is also a sense of holding back when it comes to delving deeper. We never learn anything about the deal whereby it would seem that it was agreed from the outset that the trip would be filmed as the basis for this documentary. Nor is there any questioning about the balance between undertaking such a venture to give the children pictorial memories and exposing young children, including a four-year-old, to the risks and hazards of the journey. This even passes without comment when their time in Ecuador leads to a nightmare happening.
Having followed the family throughout the trip, the film sees them return home to Montréal before rather oddly offering a coda six months later which features a visit to Coney Island. As a whole the film is certainly well done in its chosen style, but I have to admit that when watching it I was haunted by my own memories of a film all too little known which appeared in 2021. That was A Space in Time in which Nick Taussig and co-director Riccardo Servini looked at the situation of those whose lifespan will be shortened by Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease which can result in a wheelchair being needed by the age of twelve. In particular the film bravely looked at how Taussig and his wife Klara were dealing with having two young children who were thus diagnosed. That piece went so deep that it was heartrending but transcended that element through the admiration it called forth for all concerned due to their honesty and bravery and to the self-evident devoted care involved. By contrast, Blink feels relatively superficial and content to remain on the surface. For me it is A Space in Time that is the real thing, but for those wanting something more easy-going yet never insensitive Blink may well have achieved the right balance.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Édith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier, Mia Pelletier, Leo Pelletier, Colin Pelletier, Laurent Pelletier, François Lemay, Pauline Sirois.
Dir Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, Pro Melanie Miller and Diane Becker, Ph Jean-Sébastien Francoeur, Ed Ryan Mullins and Miranda Yousef, Music Tamar-kali, Animation Greg Dobie.
Fishbowl Films/Media Rights Capital-Dogwoof Releasing.
83 mins. USA. 2024. UK Rel: 22 November 2024. Cert. U.
