Daniel Roher and Edmund Stenson’s touching documentary Blink will change the way viewers see the world around them by adopting the perspective of people who won’t be able to see clearly for much longer. Bittersweet, heartfelt, and visually glorious, Blink is a story of a Canadian family that gets dealt an awful hand through a combination of genetics and fate, and their desire to make the most of an increasingly trying situation. In an age where people post everything to social media in a bid to preserve images of even the most mediocre of memories, Blink makes the case that filling one’s memory bank with a wider variety of experiences could matter more than pictures in the longterm.
Father Sébastien Pelletier and mother Édith Lemay live in the Montreal area with their four children: Mia, Leo, Colin, and Laurent (aged oldest to youngest). In addition to the never-ending chaos that comes with trying to raise four kids at once (three of them being energetic boys), all of them except for Leo have been diagnosed with a genetic, degenerative, and incurable disease that will cause them severe visual impairment down the road. Retinitis Pigmentosa will cause Mia, Colin, and Laurent to see their field of vision narrow to a point where only a tiny portion in the centre will remain. Doctors have advised Seb and Édith that there is no cure, and a good course of action would be to introduce the children to a lot of visual information while they still have some degree of eyesight, so they can remember what things look like when things get worse. The parents decide to take this one step further by creating a bucket list of things to see on a year long whirlwind trip around the world.
Not only do Oscar winning filmmaker Roher (Navalny, Once Were Brothers) and Stenson (whose background is largely in shorts and editorial work) look at the challenges faced by losing one’s vision, but also those presented to a family trying to mount an ambitious, and at times perhaps foolhardy journey. Although the Pelletier’s journey will be bypassing a lot of traditional tourist traps in favour of natural beauty (skipping the more expensive likes of Australia, Europe, and America altogether), and despite having some financial fluidity after a change in Seb’s employment, the budget for the trip sits at a lean $200 a day, meaning lots of camping and hostel stays. That could be hard for two adults on their own, but adding four children into the mix carries an additional financial and emotional toll. If things don’t go swimmingly, the well intentioned trip could be derailed before it even has a chance to get going.
Blink is engaging, inspirational, and aspirational in its approach to depicting debilitating illness and life changes, but it’s most engaging as a story of sheer perseverance. Édith and Seb are showing their children sights most will never see in their lifetime in a bid to give them great memories, but the challenge is in getting there. The kids have already lost their ability to see at night, so this limits what they can do in a day. Seb’s idea to take a length nine day hike through the Nepalese mountains offers some spectacular sights, but puts a lot of stress on the increasingly hungry, cranky, and cold kids. Illness and a harrowing bit where the family gets stuck on a cable car in Ecuador for an extended period of time also underline how such a trip isn’t always going to be the idyllic, picture perfect set of memories for the kids that the parents would’ve hoped for. Blink nicely conveys the nobility of the family’s endeavour, but never shies away from looking at the downsides of travelling with kids dealing with trying circumstances.
There are some stops along the way in Blink where viewers would want to spend more time, but for what are probably a variety of logistical reasons, Roher and Stenson move on from them pretty quickly, especially during the film’s early going. It always feels like there’s more to see and do, and the brisk pace of the documentary sometimes works against the power of the overall journey. But overall, it’s hard not to be in awe of the Pelletier family’s love for each other and the enormity of their vision in spite of an ever growing darkness.
Blink streams on Disney+ starting Thursday, January 26, 2024.
