Film festival explores the blind

As a seeing person with no blind relatives or friends, I don't often think about what my life would be like without sight. But after attending the Accessibility Awareness Film Festival Thursday put on by Bloomington's Council for Community Accessibility, I was forced to consider how differently blind people must go about their lives and yet how similar our lives are in the end.\nThe first film, "Butterflies are Free," was a 1972 comedy/drama starring Goldie Hawn and Edward Albert. Albert's character, Don Baker, is a blind man living on his own for the first time in a San Francisco apartment. He is befriended by an eccentric neighbor, 19-year-old Jill Tanner (Hawn). The film was adapted from a Broadway play of the same title, which is clear from the small cast and simple setting. The film is slow at times, but the acting is strong, and the message is clear. \nThe film does an excellent job of showing blind people are capable of functioning on their own. Don counts the steps to the laundromat and the bakery and keeps all of the condiments in a particular order on his shelf. Heightening the use of his other senses, Don is able to get along so well that Jill spends 15 minutes in his apartment before she realizes he is blind. The CCA set out to educate the public about people with disabilities and the roles they play in society with the festival. Don highlights this goal with one of the lines in the film. \n"The blindness doesn't bother me as much as other people's reactions to it," Don said. Audrey Hepburn starred in the festival's second film, "Wait Until Dark," a 1967 thriller in which a fortune of drugs has been planted in a blind woman's apartment. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues as Susy Hendrix, played by Hepburn, attempts to escape her apartment from the man who comes to retrieve the drugs. This film has an excellent plot which caused the audience to become fully involved. The auditorium was filled with gasps and screams as the film reached its climax. I was surprised to learn none of the actors in this film were awarded for their performances. Hepburn does a particularly convincing job portraying the recently-blinded Susy. \nThe film served the goal of the CCA because Susy is not only portrayed as capable and independent but also as someone who can use her disability to her advantage. After breaking all the lightbulbs in her apartment, Susy maneuvers easily around her apartment while her attacker stumbles and staggers in the dark. Susy also uses her acute sense of hearing to piece together the mystery of who is in her apartment and why. \nWhile only a small number of people attended the CCA's film festival, I hope the group still considers the event a success. As Don says in "Butterflies Are Free," "You have to care about something, or you're nothing."\nThe men and women of the CCA care deeply about issues of accessibility and inclusion in our community, and their efforts are commendable.