Blindsight 2006

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Featuring exceptional people doing extraordinary things, Blindsight is one of those documentaries with the power to make you re-examine your entire life. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Coying and manipulative. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Walker captures all the dreamy-scary beauty of Everest's upper reaches, as well as numerous mini-dramas about the kids' readiness to approach the summit. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Blindsight is hugely affecting, the rare experience that will make those who watch it thankful for what they have, yet make them realize that they aren't nearly thankful enough. Read more

Boston Globe: The film overcomes its crude production values and awkward structuring. It stirs you. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: To see how these conflicts play out, to see how both sides came to realize that they had unexpected things to learn from these remarkable young people, is where Blindsight really makes its mark. Read more

Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune: The film is often breathtakingly beautiful, and even as the students triumph over the naysayers, it's melancholy knowing they aren't sharing viewers' experiences of their starkly gorgeous world. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Lucy Walker's observant film Blindsight is about profound East-West differences in the importance of journey versus destination and comradeship versus competition. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: There are enough good stories for three movies in Lucy Walker's Blindsight, an exhilarating trip with six blind Tibetan teenagers as they scale one of the highest peaks in the Himalayas. Read more

Tamara Straus, San Francisco Chronicle: Simultaneously a sports adventure film, a tear-jerking tale of hope and inspiration and a captivating meditation on culture clash. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Watching it, you feel almost as much a winner as the kids themselves. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: Gorgeous mountain photography frames this predictably heartwarming look at a group of sightless Tibetan teenagers who attempt to climb the 23,000-foot-tall Lhakpa Ri, one of Mount Everest's highest peaks. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Blindsight is a great example of the emotional dividends that careful photography, sensitive editing and an atmospheric score can deliver. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: The deceptively complex pic gradually grows sharp edges and snowballs into a compelling study in culture clash, with spectacular scenery to boot. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Blindsight makes us consider an apparent paradox that, for the blind, is the philosophical starting point of their day: how to see things the human eye won't register. Read more