It is said that people who are blind compensate for it with heightened senses otherwise. We live in such a visually-focused world, it is difficult to imagine what it would be like to navigate it without being able to see. (A thought that just occurred to me: do those who are deaf have increased visual perception the way a blind person might have extraordinary hearing? I've never heard any such thing; perhaps this idea doesn't apply to the loss of the other senses.)
I don't know what it's like to be blind, and most people don't, so it would be interesting to get a unique perspective on the issue via the wide and wonderful world of film (which is, of course, what we are all about here at the Allan Day Film Column [more creative title pending]). Tomorrow, Saturday, is the first installment of a film series presented by the American Printing House for the Blind, entitled "How Hollywood Has Depicted Blindness". Each film will feature a major character who is blind, and the film will be introduced by Nancy Urbscheit, who teaches the class Disability in Film and Literature at Bellarmine. She will also lead a post-film discussion.
The first film in the series is Eyes in the Night [4], a 1942 noir film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Arnold. Arnold plays Mac, a blind detective with a seeing-eye dog who is asked to break up his friend's step-daughter's relationship with a much older actor. When he finds the actor dead, he is on the case, eventually uncovering a Nazi plot.
Eyes in the Night will screen tomorrow at 12:30 at the APH, located at 1839 Frankfort Avenue. Admission is free but registration is required. You can register by calling 899-2213 or by emailing kcarpenter@aph.org.
Image: Internet Movie Database