We all know, theoretically, our world can change in the blink of an eye. But Daniel Roher and Edmund Stenson’s compelling film, “Blink,” at the M.V. Film Center brings us up close to what happens when a seismic rupture occurs within the Pelletier family.
Edith and Sébastien’s lives are already full to the brim when we meet their four children – 11-year-old Mia, 9-year-old Leo, Colin, who is 6, and Laurent, 4. Edith notes, “When you get to four kids, you accept chaos.” Sébastien continues, “It’s like life is just escaping you. You see each other every day, but there’s just not much time to connect. But after the diagnosis, everything changed.”
Suddenly, all their lives are forever altered when three of the four children are diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa — a rare and incurable eye disease that leads to severe visual impairment. As the retina cells die off, the children’s eyesight will get progressively narrower, and their field of vision shrinks. Or, as Colin describes it, “I know my vision will be big like the world. And then small like a straw.”
“Not only are you numb, but you’re powerless,” Sébastien tells us. There’s no medicine, surgery, or diet to help. For Edith, “The hardest part of the diagnosis was the inaction. There’s no treatment … to feel that I’m getting in control.”
A bell goes off when a specialist tells her the best thing to do is fill her children with visual memories so they will have images of what things look like when they go blind. Poring through the encyclopedia and photographs is not enough, and the couple hits upon the idea of undertaking the adventure of a lifetime. The family creates a bucket list of all the adventures they can imagine, and takes off for a yearlong trip from Montreal.
They work as a team. Edith is responsible for luggage, schooling, meals, and social media. Sébastien is responsible for the budget and logistical planning, including transportation, accommodations, and what seems like a never-ending agenda of activities. Despite all their roughhousing, we see how strongly united the siblings are, supporting one another in myriad ways.
“Blink” is beautifully shot; we travel with the family as they make each dream come true on a $200-a-day budget. There is sleeping on a train in Zambia, eating ice cream in Turkey, riding horses in Mongolia, surfing in Indonesia, eating with chopsticks in Laos, learning a new language in Thailand, rafting in Ecuador and exploring a rainforest in the Amazon. Perhaps Laurent’s most idiosyncratic wish is to drink juice while on a camel.
As the trip progresses, so too does the children’s disease. We see how their loss of night vision affects what they can do once the sun gets low in the sky. Heartbreakingly, Mia says, “When in the dark, I feel I’m in space without any light; none, none, none … And it feels like I’m a void. So I always need to touch something. It makes me feel less scared.”
Witnessing so many spectacular night skies on the trip, Edith talks about when she realized her children could no longer see the stars. “That’s the first thing you need to say goodbye to. And you know there will be so many things like that in the future.”
Although we know a documentary crew traveling with the family, “Blink” is intimate. We are right there with the rambunctiously spirited crew as they go through not just the trials and tribulations of this whirlwind adventure, but how they, as a family, deal with the changes that are both happening and lie ahead.
As they fill their memories with breathtaking destinations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters, the family’s resilience and unshakable love for one another make us, too, want to seize the day.
“Blink” plays at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center on Friday, Oct. 4, Saturday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 6. For tickets, visit mvfilmsociety.com/2024/09/blink.
