Hello,
On October 3 the NFB is planning 50 simultaneous nationwide demonstrations to educate the public on the truth about blindness in order to counteract the negative imagery portrayed in the movie blindness. We have yet to select a place to hold the demonstration. Anyone interested in joining the demonstration is invited to call me at 517-482-1800.
I am forwarding our 2007 resolution on this matter. I want to be clear that we are not advocating sensoring the movie. We, however have free speech rights to express our outrage over such a portrayal of blindness.
Regarding a Screenplay Called Blindness
WHEREAS, the book entitled Blindness, by Jose Saramago, has now been adapted as a
screenplay to be directed by Fernando Meirelles, the filming beginning this summer
with an anticipated release of next spring; and
WHEREAS, the plot of the book perpetuates society’s fears and misconceptions of blindness
in the worst possible manner: the premise of the novel is that an epidemic of blindness
is sweeping through a city; the blindness is extremely contagious, though it is unclear
exactly how it is transmitted; the people simply, very suddenly, become blind; the
blindness is described as a white "sea of milk" known by some as "the white evil"
the blind are placed in an abandoned medical facility gated and guarded by armed
military personnel to limit their contact with the populace; and
WHEREAS, the book depicts blindness as tragic and hopeless: “If I have to stay like
this, I'd rather be dead”; and
WHEREAS, the story involves explicit images of those confined losing all civility—stealing
from one another; relieving themselves in hallways and other public areas; using
extortion to secure food and sex; committing adultery and murder; and engaging in
repeated gang rapes, all of which is graphically detailed; and
WHEREAS, the characters are further dehumanized by not having any names and are repeatedly
alluded to as like animals: “It was too funny for words, some of the blind internees
advancing on all fours, their faces practically touching the ground as if they were
pigs”; and
WHEREAS, Saramago’s book includes countless stereotypes about blindness such as:
“They had not been without their sight long enough for their sense of hearing to
have become keener than normal”; and
WHEREAS, the only person who does not become blind is the caretaker for a small group
of people who are described as better off than the others since they have someone
with sight to fend for them; and
WHEREAS, numerous passages discuss the presence and smell of human waste, furthering
the degradation of the blind characters—“It was not just the fetid smell that came
from the lavatories in gusts that made you want to throw up, it was also the accumulated
body odor of two hundred and fifty people whose bodies were steeped in their own
sweat, who were neither able nor knew how to wash themselves, who wore clothes that
got filthier by the day, who slept in beds where they had frequently defecated”;
and
WHEREAS, reviews of the book confirm the destructive consequence of this unfortunate
work with comments such as: “The novel Blindness really illustrates the difference
between sighted and non-sighted,” and “Hard to know what to make of it. Are we better
off learning to live with our blindness or glorying in what little we can see?”;
and
WHEREAS, the presumed primacy of sight is further emphasized by comments of reviewers:
“The doctor's wife somehow remains sighted, and she is able to give this small group
the advantages that allow it to survive when others could not,” and “She alone seems
to understand the true scope of what is happening in the story, and she alone sees
the full scale of the horror that occurs”: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this
sixth day of July, 2007, in the city of
condemn and deplore the negative, damaging, distorted description of blindness and
blind people contained in the novel, Blindness by Jose Saramago, for playing on society’s
fears and deepening prejudice against the blind, leading to lost opportunities in
employment and social acceptance; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge Fernando Meirelles, director of
the screen adaptation of Blindness to abandon filming in order to limit the damage
this misguided novel has already caused; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization use every means at its disposal to
bring to the attention of the film’s financial supporters the serious harm that would
result from demeaning and degrading blind people in such an irresponsible manner
and urge them to withdraw their support of the project.
Please support our efforts. After all, this movie is talking about a misguided image of you.
Warm Regards,
Fred Wurtzel, President
National Federation of the Blind of Michigan