Frederick Wiseman spent 132 minutes watching blind kids learn to live—and you should too, coward.
BLIND shows the educational programs and daily life of students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at the Alabama School for the Blind. The School is organized around the effort to educate blind and visually impaired students to be in charge of their own lives. Sequences in the film include mobility training, braille instruction and orientation as well as traditional classroom subjects such as English, history, science and music. Other sequences show psychological counseling sessions; vocational training; staff dealing with student disciplinary problems; and the wide variety of recreational and athletic programs.
Direction
Wiseman's invisible hand—no narration, just truth.
Editing
132 minutes that somehow feel earned, not endured.
Director
Frederick Wiseman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of Wiseman's 'Deaf & Blind' diptych, this cemented his direct cinema approach—no reenactments, no commentary, just institutional life rendered with almost terrifying patience.
The Alabama School's philosophy—'be in charge of your own life'—was progressive for 1986; Wiseman subtly contrasts this with how sighted society still infantilizes.
US
