The Eyes Of Me Finishes Community Cinema Run And Airs Tomorrow

Throughout the month of February, Community Cinema welcomed thousands of guests to our 47 free screening events for Keith Maitland’s documentary The Eyes Of Me. The Eyes of me airs tomorrow Tuesday, March 2 on Independent Lens at 10:00 PM on most PBS stations (check local listings).

Filmmaker Keith Maitland attended our screening in Houston presented locally by HoustonPBS. He shares his experience at the event.

“With more than 125 audience members in attendance –– many of them blind or visually-impaired –– HoustonPBS hosted a wonderful Community Cinema screening of The Eyes of Me. It’s always exciting for me to be able to sit in a crowded theater and share the film with a new audience but there was something very special about this particular screening. Along with producer Patrick Floyd, I was happy to travel to Houston from Austin, Texas, to experience Community Cinema firsthand. Meagan McComic (one of the main characters from the film) and Bill Daugherty, superintendent of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), joined Patrick and I on the panel after the film, to share their reflections and perspectives with the Houston community –– many of whom had ties to TTSBVI directly. Two of the audience members were alumni of TSBVI –– Michael Garrett, class of ’69, and Bernice Klepak, class of ’55. It was exciting to hear Michael and Bernice’s response to the film, and the contrasts between their days at the school and the stories of Chas, Meagan, Denise, and Isaac represented in the film. Bernice was impressed with how honest and natural today’s students were compared to her days when she feels that they were all “pretty straight-laced.”

At this screening, as we have done at all of our festival screenings before this, we were able to offer live audio description through the use of wireless receivers and transmitters. This system (provided by a grant from the Austin Film Society) gives blind and visually-impaired audience members the opportunity to hear an additional audio track that offers visual information, and reads onscreen text, so that users can experience the film as fully as any audience member. Use of this technology offers accessibility and also educates sighted audience members about accessibility. It’s not surprising that most people have never heard of or considered audio description, we didn’t know about it before making the film either, but I’m happy to be an advocate for accessible media and accessible websites too! (Our website, http://EyesofMe.com, is fully accessible via use of screen reading software, and we offer a fully accessible trailer that is both audio described, and open captioned for the hearing impaired.) What made Community Cinema such a great screening event was that the audience was so active and engaged. The Q&A following the film was a mixture of questions and comments about the film, the specific characters and stories, as well as how themes within the film affected the local community. It was exactly what we’ve hoped Community Cinema would be –– it was wonderful. Thanks so much HoustonPBS.”

Read on for more event highlights, exclusive video, and broadcast information.

The Missouri History Museum was ready and equipped with special earpieces so blind film goers could get a better idea of the picture The Eyes of Me was really painting. Actually, having the earpieces available was exactly what panelist, Pastor Dave Andrus -who runs the Lutheran Blind Mission and who has been blind since age 11- said society needs to move toward. The city of Austin, Texas featured in the film is very equipped to handle its blind residents, and although St. Louis still has a ways to go, the panelists agreed the city is making progress in supporting persons with disabilities especially in the area of transportation services.

Panelist Joy Waddel, Assistant Superintendent of the Missouri School for the Blind, said she and her staff loved the film. She said, “Teens are teens and they all have similar problems growing up. It’s just that these teens have an extra handicap to deal with.” She especially loved the film because as she put it, “It was so great in the film to see the teens put into words how they feel. That is an issue that we often have to work with in school.” Other than that she said, “I could have put St. Louis faces on each of the characters in the film I really have seen those students right in my own school.”

Community Cinema DC and Busboys and Poets decided The Eyes of Me event would be the perfect time to introduce braille menus. Busboys and Poets is a restaurant/bistro/bookstore/performance space located in the historic U Street corridor of Washington, DC and named for the famous Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes’ who was discovered in the capital city while working as a busboy at a hotel. Owner Andy Shallal said he attended “The Eyes of Me” event to get a better understanding of the perspectives of blind and visually impaired persons in social interactions.

Busboys and Poets was intentionally created to be “community space” with tasty food as an extra perk. Busboys and Poets has been hosting Community Cinema in the Langston Room for nearly 5 seasons. The introduction of Braille menus is yet another effort to bring more communities to Busboys and Poets and our Community Cinema events.

Our Community Cinema Regional Outreach Coordinator (pro tem) partner Sara Zia Ebrahimi shares her thoughts about the upcoming free screening of The Eyes of Me.

The Community Cinema Philadelphia program was excited to work with a new venue for their event at the Overbrook School for the Blind (OSB). Overbrook has been providing schooling opportunities to young people with visual impairments for over 100 years, similar to the school featured in Maitlin’s film.

“While I’m incredibly grateful that places like OSB exist, an unfortunate result of separate schooling means that most of us who are able-bodied and have full vision and hearing end up almost never interacting with a person with a disability for the majority of our lives,” explains Regional Outreach Coordinator (pro tem) for Philly Sara Zia Ebrahimi. She also says,”The Eyes of Me screening provides an opportunity to bridge the gap in bringing these communities together.”

Philadelphia has a vibrant chapter of ADAPT that is part of Liberty Resources, one of the community partners for our screening. Over the past twenty years they have won several successful campaigns to create more autonomy and freedom for people with disabilities by creating more accessible housing, transportation and employment options for people in the Philadelphia region. They continually remind people in this area that people with disabilities are not some heroic stories that should be pitied or used as inspirational fodder for the able-bodied, but people who want full vibrant lives like anyone else. They also remind us that if you truly want to be an ally to a person with a disability, occasional charity will not do. Real change will come about through policy changes that consciously integrate deaf, blind, and physically impaired people into all aspects of daily life alongside able-bodied, seeing and hearing people.

In this video extra, a new student at the school, Denise, explores a brand new store in the neighborhood and learns to navigate on her own, with the help of a coach.

Tune in tomorrow.

Tags: blind, documentary, free events, pbs, the eyes of me, visually impaired