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大象传媒 Radio 4 In Touch |
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Listen to this programmeFactsheet of this programmeTranscript of this programme Print this page FactsheetBLINDNESSIn Touch discusses the latest movie depiction of blindness that has caused outrage in the US. The latest film from City of God and The Constant Gardener director Fernando Meirelles depicts what happens when a city is ravaged by a plague of sudden blindness. Peter talks to Mani Djazmi about the controversy it caused in America, and to David Gritten, film critic for the Daily Telegraph. The National Federation of the Blind, deplored the film claiming, 鈥淸it] will do substantial harm to the blind of America and the world鈥. Are they right? Blindness is released nationwide on August 20th. CONTACTS National Federation for the Blind www.nfb.org American Council of the Blind www.acb.org CHARLES BONNET SYNDROME Peter talks to Tom Bembridge of the Macular Disease Society about their campaign to increase awareness of Charles Bonnet Syndrome which affects one in three people with Macular Degeneration and causes visually hallucinations. CONTACTS Macular Disease Society Helpline: 01264 350559 www.maculardisease.org www.maculardisease.org/show_news.asp?section=00040003&id=377&date=2008/11/12 GENERAL CONTACTS RNIB 105 Judd Street London WC1H 9NE Helpline: 0845 766 9999 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) Tel: 0207 388 1266 (switchboard/overseas callers) www.rnib.org.uk The RNIB provides information, support and advice for anyone with a serious sight problem. They not only provide Braille, Talking Books and computer training, but imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. The RNIB campaigns to change society's attitudes, actions and assumptions, so that people with sight problems can enjoy the same rights, freedoms and responsibilities as fully sighted people. They also fund pioneering research into preventing and treating eye disease and promote eye health by running public health awareness campaigns. HENSHAWS SOCIETY FOR BLIND PEOPLE (HSBP) John Derby House 88-92 Talbot Road Old Trafford Manchester M16 0GS Tel: 0161 872 1234 Email: info@hsbp.co.uk www.henshaws.org.uk Henshaws provides a wide range of services for people who have sight difficulties. They aim to enable visually impaired people of all ages to maximise their independence and enjoy a high quality of life. They have centres in: Harrogate, Knaresborough, Liverpool, Llandudno, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Southport and Trafford. THE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND ASSOCIATION (GDBA) Burghfield Common Reading RG7 3YG Tel: 0118 983 5555 Email: guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk The GDBA鈥檚 mission is to provide guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. ACTION FOR BLIND PEOPLE 14-16 Verney Road London SE16 3DZ Tel: 0800 915 4666 (info & advice) Tel: 020 7635 4800 (central office) www.afbp.org Registered charity with national cover that provides practical support in the areas of housing, holidays, information, employment and training, cash grants and welfare rights for blind and partially-sighted people. Leaflets and booklets are available. NATIONAL LEAGUE OF THE BLIND AND DISABLED Central Office Swinton House 324 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8DD Tel: 020 7837 6103 Textphone: 020 7837 6103 National League of the Blind and Disabled is a registered trade union and is involved in all issues regarding the employment of blind and disabled people in the UK. NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND (NLB) Tel: 0161 406 2525 Textphone: 0161 355 2043 Email: enquiries@nlbuk.org www.nlb-online.org Trustees from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and the National Library for the Blind (NLB) have agreed to merge the library services of both charities as of 1 January 2007, creating the new RNIB National Library Service. EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HELPLINE (England) Freepost RRLL-GHUX-CTRX Arndale House Arndale Centre Manchester M4 3EQ 0845 604 6610 - England main number 0845 604 6620 - England textphone 0845 604 6630 - England fax Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Wed 9:00 am-8:00 pm (last call taken at 7:45pm) EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HELPLINE (Wales) Freepost RRLR-UEYB-UYZL 3rd Floor 3 Callaghan Square Cardiff CF10 5BT 0845 604 8810 - Wales main number 0845 604 8820 - Wales textphone 0845 604 8830 - Wales fax Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Wed 9:00 am-8:00 pm (last call taken at 7:45pm) EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HELPLINE (Scotland) Freepost RRLL-GYLB-UJTA The Optima Building 58 Robertson Street Glasgow G2 8DU 0845 604 5510 - Scotland Main 0845 604 5520 - Scotland Textphone 0845 604 5530 - Scotland 鈥 Fax Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Wed 9:00 am-8:00 pm (last call taken at 7:45pm) DISABLED LIVING FOUNDATION 380-384 Harrow Road London W9 2HU Tel: 0845 130 9177 www.dlf.org.uk The Disabled Living Foundation provides information and advice on disability equipment. The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites聽 General contacts Back to top TranscriptIN TOUCHTX: 19.11.08 2040-2100 PRESENTER: PETER WHITE PRODUCER: JOE KENT White Good Evening. Today we examine two very different experiences of blindness. We'll be reporting on the film which describes it as a kind of "milky haze" and examining the condition that causes this kind of disturbing vision: Clip I opened my eyes one night and there was a man about a foot from my bed - a Maori warrior holding a dagger in his hands. It terrified me. Then it moved and it had a floppy trilby hat on and I realised it wasn't real. White Ring a bell with you? Then you may well have an eye condition which frightens many people because of the images it can create but, needn't if it's properly explained. More about Charles Bonnet Syndrome later in the programme. Images of blindness on the screen have never gone down particularly well with blind people. It seems that to be good box office we either have to be needy, dependent whingers, or boorish, ungrateful oafs. And now a new film based on a novel by the Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago and called, baldly, "Blindness", seems to have done nothing to improve the image. Clip An epidemic of blindness has broken out, provisionally known as "the white sickness". And we're relying on the public spirit and cooperation of all citizens to stem any future contagion. You'll never believe what they promised. Let me guess - this guy's voice is already driving me crazy. You're lucky you can't see it. It's a video? Well that's scary, makes you question what kind of an idiot would play a video in a quarantine for the blind. White Well "Blindness" caused outrage already amongst some of the American organisations of blind people when it opened there a few weeks ago. Well Mani Djazmi joins me. Mani, what's all the fuss about? Djazmi Well just to give you a brief outline of what the film's about. It's based on a fictional city where suddenly a bunch of sighted people go blind as a result of this white sickness plague. The place they went into in that clip was a disused mental asylum where they're placed under armed guard to avoid anyone else in the city from catching this disease. Now the newly blind people struggle with their new lives, some of them can't dress themselves, some of them end up living in their own excrement. And if that isn't grim enough one of them gets hold of a gun and then becomes the kind of king pin of the asylum and takes control of the food rations which he exchanges, firstly in return for the other inmates valuables and then when the valuables run out for their women. Eventually a big fight breaks out, there's a fire and some of them escape into the city which turns out to be in chaos because everyone's gone blind already anyway. In terms of the American reaction to all this the National Federation of the Blind, which is the biggest and most influential membership organisation of blind people in the States, they led over 70 protests in front of cinemas showing the film in 37 states. And their president is Dr Marc Maurer and he's really come off his long run on this one. He says this film will do incalculable harm to the public image of blind people and further lower the general public's expectations about the ability of blind people to fully contribute to society. And they've urged Miramax and their parent company Walt Disney, which is the company which produced the film, to basically withdraw it from cinemas and, as they put it: "prevent more damage to the hopes and aspirations of blind Americans". White Okay, so they haven't stinted themselves. What about organisations in the UK, have they had anything to say yet? Djazmi There's been a far more measured response in the UK but that's mainly to do with the fact that the film doesn't actually come out until later this week. The RNIB, I've spoken to them, and they're certainly not advocating picketing or protesting outside cinemas but they are concerned that the film doesn't really reflect what happens to a person when they lose their sight. And they're worried that it could potentially reinforce some of the unhelpful stereotypes and misconceptions about blind people. White Well you've been to see it - what did you make of it? Djazmi Well I thought as a film it wasn't all that great really, wasn't particularly enjoyable. As a blind person I wasn't offended at all because it's - it's a fictional film about survival in extreme social situations, not a documentary about the lives of blind people. And that's very much the view that the director of the film - Fermando Meirelles - wanted to get across when I spoke with him. Meirelles It's about a metaphorical blindness, it's about our incapacity of seeing ourselves, recognising ourselves or realising or seeing what is in front of us. We only see what we want to see, we're quite ignorant about ourselves. That's the blindness that the film refers to. Djazmi But the blindness in the film is extremely stark, it's very, very squalid, there's lots of tension and lots of hatred and it's a very dark portrayal of blindness so how does that translate into this metaphor for ignorance? Meirelles The film's really about human nature, when everybody's put in the crisis situation that they can't control anymore they're thrown back to their very primitive state. I don't think it's really about normal blindness. Djazmi How much preparation did you have to put in to create as accurate a portrayal of new blindness as possible? Meirelles What we did was very simple - we just gave people blindfolds and we start walking with them and see these - we did different exercises like them trying to follow sounds or chasing each other or having lunch without any training. So each one found their own way to create their blind way of being. Djazmi Were any blind people used at all in helping the actors to adapt and learn the various mannerisms and the feelings and the thoughts that go through newly blind people's minds? Meirelles On the film we have one character that was blind all his life, which was played by Maury Chaykin, and he's able to organise all the other blind people in his ward because he's more adapted than the others. So he went to some institutions in Toronto to learn how to use sticks, to behave an adapted blind guy would. But all the others they just trained by themselves because it was much more improvised. I mean in the film everybody goes blind, they put inside pens and taken to the asylum with no training, no nothing. Djazmi In America, as you know, blind organisations have been very offended by the portrayal of blindness. There are people who can't dress themselves, can't wash themselves, can't go into the toilet. Meirelles Yeah, of course I heard about the complaining but I think they missed the point completely. Everybody knows that any blind guy can be perfectly adapted, it's about people who have just gone blind with no opportunity of any adaptation. Djazmi What have you learnt about blindness in producing this film and how scared are you of going blind? Meirelles I did this exercise with the blindfold myself, we would do those exercises with groups of 25, 30 and every time there was like three or four people that would - at some point would sit down and cry. For me it was the opposite - there was some very comfortable thing about being with myself, not seeing how people was reacting to what I was saying or it was in some way it was very comfortable. I'm 53, I always was able to see so it would be very hard but I never had this fear of being blind. Djazmi That's Fernando Meirelles, the director of "Blindness". And he mentioned the one character in that film who is blind from birth and he actually allies himself with the evil king pin with the gun and because he's the only person in the asylum who can read Braille he becomes the accountant and as all the valuables are brought in for the food he documents them all. And there's a line in which the king pin says - his blindness doesn't make him good or bad, it just makes him blind. And I thought that as the only real portrayal of blindness that's quite a positive one because it's not patronising or stereotypical, it's just a man out for himself. White Okay Mani. Well it isn't that we don't trust you but we are also joined by a fully paid up film critic - David Gritten, of the Daily Telegraph. David, what did you make of the film, purely as a film, forgetting initially all the ballyhoo we've been talking about? Gritten Well purely as a film Peter I thought it was ambitious, decently made, very intriguing. It is essentially a parable, an allegory, and I don't think film is a very kind medium to stories that are allegorical in that way. The printed page allows people to make up their own mind about what they're seeing and sometimes when you see characters on a screen and the intent of the story is to be more of a parable about humanity it can sometimes come across as a little clumsy and I did feel that there were clumsy moments in this. White Yeah because that is the problem, isn't it, what people are actually seeing is blindness portrayed in ways that reinforce the kind of stereotypes we thought we'd got rid of which presumably probably wasn't even in the filmmaker's mind? Gritten I genuinely don't think it was in the filmmaker's mind. But I can see that pressure groups, especially in the States, would see it in a different light and I don't blame them for at least having their say because film is such a persuasive medium in terms of fixing stereotypes. I think some of these advocacy groups are basically just doing their job. White How do you think film generally has dealt with blindness, because I said at the beginning that it does seem that it's very difficult to get away with it? Gritten It is difficult to get away with it and there have been some hilariously bad stereotypical performances. I have to say, incidentally, that I felt some of the portrayals of blindness in this film - they did look a little bit like method acting blindness, it's as though people were in a rehearsal studio and they were told, okay, act blind - what does that mean to you, what are your first impressions. Having said that these are people who have recently been stricken with blindness and I think they're struggling with the fact. And so if it seems a little overplayed then maybe that would be the rationale for it. White And where do you stand on the issue of casting? One of the things that the American demonstrators complained about most was the fact that there was no attempt to cast visually impaired actors, of whom there are quite a few around. Gritten There are quite a few around and I hate to say this but this has everything to do with the financing of films. Follow the money and you end up with actors who are known to the general public - it's the way of the world. White But Mani, I gather the demonstrators weren't always that sympathetically treated by the press. Djazmi No, I mean I think the vehemence of their protests may well backfire because in the columns of newspapers in America that I've read and on the internet as well the overwhelming view isn't that oh goodness me look at the way blind people live, I'd hate to be blind even more now that I've seen this film. The columnists are saying well you know the blind people who are protesting should just chill out because it's fictional, we don't think it's real. They're coming across as being over sensitive and with chips on their shoulders which may well do more harm in the long run to the public image of blind people than this film. White David Gritten, Mani Djazmi, thank you both very much indeed. Gritten Thank you. White Now, to a very different, but potentially equally frightening image of blindness. Clip I see people climbing on ornaments and they sit on cushions. I was terrified the first time, petrified. I was on my own and I didn't know what to do. I did wonder if I was going funny in the head and I think other people did too. I have two different images. One is beautiful like the Northern Lights - purple and yellow - and it changes shape every six seconds and then goes back to where it started as if on a loop. The other is like raindrops falling into a pool of water with a light above it. I was widowed nine years ago and one day I woke up, turned over and there's my husband's face on the pillow. I just said - Hello darling, what time is it? His eyelashes were moving but the eyes weren't really there. I see all sorts - houses, people walking - and all at the same time as flashing lights like fireworks. They're continuous and bloody annoying. It is tiring. Sometimes I get shocks. I've seen animals I thought were really there. No one told me about it. Suddenly there were three men stood in front of me in black and they were beckoning me. I thought my days were up. I tried to wake my husband. I was shaking him and I was screaming. They looked like three undertakers all in black. A doctor and an ambulance came and I went to hospital. It was so scary. White Well those are just a few manifestations of a condition which an estimated one out of three people with Macular Degeneration, that's the commonest form of blindness amongst older visually impaired people, suffer from. But the Macular Disease Society believes very strongly that much of this fear is unnecessary and they've just launched a campaign to increase awareness. I'm joined by Joan Dearden, who has Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and Tom Bremridge, chief-executive of the Macular Disease Society. Tom, can you just explain what the nature of this syndrome is? Bremridge Charles Bonnet Syndrome is the seeing of visual hallucinations. The brain, when it finds that it's not getting the normal images up from the retina, along the optic nerve, the brain tries to make up for this and goes into overdrive, inventing images which it passes on to the brain's owner instead of normal sight. And so this is a physical condition. People have confusion, sometimes, when they start getting hallucinations, about whether they are beginning to suffer from some mental condition and they don't understand that it is caused by their sight loss and not by anything going wrong in their mind. White So one of your contentions really is that people should be warned about this so that when it happens that fear doesn't kind of knock them sideways? Bremridge Well yes absolutely because they get very, very distressed. What is happening to them? Are they beginning to lose control? And they're terrified, very often, that if they tell anybody that they're seeing things they will be thought of as going slightly potty. The fact that we tell them that this is a clinical condition, that strips off the stress immediately and they say thank goodness. And it removes all the distress and we want that done earlier, we want it done at the time of diagnosis so that they don't bottle this up and get terribly worried about it and not tell anybody and just drive themselves into a state of huge concern and distress. White Let me bring in Joan Dearden in Queensbury in West Yorkshire, how did you first realise you had got this syndrome? Dearden I first saw strangers standing at a local bus stop. They always had their back towards me, they always had their heads covered. I know a lot of the local people and I never recognised them and as I walked towards them they just disappeared and there was nowhere for them to go. But fortunately I realised that it probably was the Charles Bonnet Syndrome because I'd had a lot of literature from the Macular Disease Society which I'd read. White So you weren't told this by a professional? Dearden No I'd seen four or five different ophthalmologists and none of them have ever mentioned it. They're much more concerned with which letters I can read on the chart. White Weren't you scared though, I mean it sounds a fairly frightening experience? Dearden No I wouldn't say I was but the next image was, in a way, more scary because I then started to see a head above me when I was in bed at night. It was just out of arm's reach, the face was very dark coloured - like the colour of dark chocolate - very smooth, it had lovely curly hair and quite a smiley face. And the first time I saw it I was really quite taken aback. White And presumably you're never quite sure whether you're seeing the real thing or not? Dearden Well with the strangers you're not but I mean this head is just so ridiculous you know there's nobody there. There was an occasion when a monkey was sunning itself on my garage roof and the house [indistinct word] sea level, it's very exposed, we'd never see monkey there. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And I daren't tell anybody because once you've told your friends that you have these hallucinations then they don't believe anything you say that's unusual. And I was so relieved the next day when my neighbour said did the RSPCA catch you yesterday, they were looking for an escaped monkey. So that was quite a relief. White Tom Bremridge, if I can just finally go back to you. What do you want to see done because what about that argument that people feel it's too much to give people a. the information that they're losing their sight, b. they're going to have these hallucinations? Bremridge Well the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the Institute of Psychiatry now agree that by telling people about Charles Bonnet Syndrome at the time of diagnosis you are saving problems down the line and it is not information overload when they're diagnosed. And therefore, we want to get the message out - let's talk about it, let's bring it out of the closet. And what we really want to avoid is people bottling this up, not knowing what it is, not talking about it and if they do talk about it occasionally we have incidences of a GP referring a patient to a psychiatrist for psychiatric counselling and of course that is absolute nonsense because they've got a physical clinical condition and not a mental one. White Tom Bremridge, Joan Dearden - thank you both very much indeed. And that's it for today but do call us with your reactions to anything you've heard in the programme, you can call us on 0800 044 044 or you can e-mail us at the website. And don't forget you can also download a podcast of the programme from tomorrow. Mani will be here next week to present the programme. From me, Peter White, my producer Joe Kent and the team, goodbye. Back to top |
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