More inspiring than compelling, this documentary tells the story of six blind Tibetan teens who set out to climb a peak near Mount Everest. The attempt was the brainchild of Erik Weihenmayer, who’d been the first blind person to climb Everest. Weihenmayer had been invited to visit Tibet by Sabriye Tenberken, a German native, also blind, who had singlehandedly created a braille alphabet for Tibetans and begun a program called Braille Without Borders to teach blind children English and other subjects. Tenberken is an amazing woman whose own story probably would have been worth devoting more time to. The superstition surrounding blindness in Tibet—it’s typically regarded as a punishment for the sins in a past life—makes her work all the more valuable. As for the movie, the footage of the mountain is striking, and the conflict between the goals of the students and their sighted guides brings the story to a somewhat surprising conclusion. But I felt like a long 60 Minutes segment probably would have done it as much justice.
IMDB link
viewed 3/11/08; reviewed 3/13/08
No comments:
Post a Comment