National Geographic followed the journey of the Lemay-Pelletier family, three of whose children became blind.
Édith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier have four children, Mia, Léo, Colin and Laurent. Three of them will lose their sight because they suffer from retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable and extremely rare disease. They decide to show them the world before they go blind.
Delayed due to the pandemic, the Lemay-Pelletiers’ trip is much more than a simple family documentary. Filmed by co-directors Edmond Stenson and Daniel Roher, both behind the documentary NavalnyOscar winner last year, Blink shows the incredible adventure of six people, including four children, facing the beauty of the world around them.
Léo, Colin, Laurent, Mia, Sébastien Pelletier and Édith Lemay in Nepal.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MRC, JEAN-SÉBASTIEN FRANCOEUR
The family dynamic has a lot to do with the attachment we immediately feel for the Lemay-Pelletiers. With unusual transparency and sincerity (nothing shocking or tearful, no staged moments created to be touching), the members of the family share their emotions (notably during the breakdown of a funicular in South America). South or during their departure to Nepal), their hopes (we find the children six months after the end of the trip) and their fears (notably those of the children facing inevitable blindness).
Conversations between parents and children are always fascinating, the whole tribe never hesitating to share their observations and emotions with caring candor.
We laugh, we marvel, we admire, we empathize with them and we also learn from the resilience of this extraordinary family.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Blink arrives on provincial screens from October 4.
