[Artbeyondsightmuseums] John Hull 'Notes on Blindness’, 104 films

[fnugg at online.no]

Hi,
In the New York Times there is an article about John Hull author of 
Touching the Rock and a  film made about his audio diary.

Regards.

Lisa
excerpt
"In 1983, after years of deteriorating vision, the writer and theologian 
John Hull lost the last traces of light sensation. For the next three 
years, he kept a diary on audio-cassette of his interior world of 
blindness. This film is a dramatization that uses his original recordings.
  ..."


    The Story Behind ‘Notes on Blindness’

 From the Directors

In May 2011, we received a parcel containing a dusty box of eight C90 
cassettes. Amid the analog crackle of the first tape, we heard a 
now-familiar voice: “Cassette one. Side one. Notes on Blindness.” It was 
the first time the recording had been played for almost 25 years.We had 
met John and Marilyn Hull six months earlier while filming a short 
documentary about the blind experience of snowfall."

Peter Middleton and James Spinney are London-based filmmakers. Their 
Op-Doc "Notes on Blindness" is an official selection of the 2014 
Sundance Film Festival. They are currently developing a feature-length 
version <http://intodarkness.co.uk/> of the film.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/16/opinion/16OpDoc-NotesOnBlindness.html?action=click&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article

Film website


    ‘Cognition is beautiful’

In the summer of 1983, just days before the birth of his first son, 
writer and theologian John Hull went blind.

In order to make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began keeping a 
diary on audiocassette.  They were published in 1991 to critical 
acclaim. The neurologist Oliver Sacks describes the work as ‘the most 
extraordinary, precise, deep and beautiful account of blindness I have 
ever read. It is to my mind a masterpiece.’

With exclusive access to these original recordings, *NOTES ON 
BLINDNESS* encompases dreams, memory and imaginative life, excavating 
the interior world of blindness.


        PREMIERING AT SUNDANCE 2014
        <http://www.sundance.org/festival/release/2014-festival-short-film-program-announced/>


http://www.notesonblindness.co.uk/

   The Diaries.

Into Darkness follows the story of writer and theologian John Hull after 
he lost his sight in the early 1980s. For three years he kept a diary on 
audiocassette – over sixteen hours in total – deconstructing his 
experience of blindness in relation to his family, identity and his faith.


          Into Darkness is the very first time these original recordings
        have been heard in public. The film takes its structure from the
        diaries, brought to life by striking cinematography, verbatim
        reconstructions and creative use of archive footage.

http://intodarkness.co.uk/

104 films website

*104 films *make British feature films for a global audience. We are the 
world leaders in disability and disadvantaged cinema and it is our 
mission statement to create a tectonic shift in the representation of 
disabled people both in front of and behind the camera. Our funders 
include British Film Institute, Creative Skillset and Creative England.

http://www.104films.com/