A poignant and brutally realistic look at the unfortunate circumstances of blind folks, BRAILLED IT offers a rather scintillating perspective on how these kids navigate their challenges in the midst of a weekend full of them.
Yes, these young kids are gathering in the Los Angeles area for the “Braille Challenge,” an annual event that lets kids practice and hone their literary skills. In this feature, we follow several characters, including Salome Cummins, Isaiah Gauthier, and Christopher Morgan, with cameras strapped to their chests as we follow their first-person view as they compete in several literary challenges and socialize with others, discussing how they’ll beat one another. They showcase how they read and move around in their condition, across the hotel, and open areas in LA. It’s a unique panorama, an aberration from the conventional documentaries out there that rely on interviews or stock footage to convey the life of the main characters. As the story unravels, it poses an intriguing question for prospects: “What if the blind individual was wielding the camera?”
The stark, raw camera angles maintain a low, grounded point of view, making them visually engaging. At times, the camera’s throttling to a blurry output is a wonderful exhibition, especially when people have to readjust the focus for their composition and focal points. Coupled with a vigorous sound design and realistic dialogue, the folks become ingrained in a subversive motion picture. In the second half, it’s a riveting assessment of how the kids read and use the braille devices to type. Never before has a documentary, outside of a few in this rarified air, come with this assiduous compulsion to showcase a blunt reality for these folks dealing with such unfortunate circumstances. It subliminally makes folks question how they would navigate life without sight, sound (if deaf), or other dysfunctions. Does the story still work without these key attributes?
Now, the voice-over (by Meredith Stein) introduced at the start, and that permeates the entire feature, is borderline grating. One essential rule in writing a tale onscreen is to let the characters and the action speak for themselves, not to remind the audience of what’s going on every ten seconds. At times, this almost becomes detrimental, preventing the camera from telling us the story of what these kids are going through and their interactions. However, we do have to concede that some of the information is relevant, following who is involved in the scene and where they’re traveling toward.
As the film states, “you’ve done a great job of being here,” this feature alone more than warrants its existence thanks to a brilliant outlook and the courage to explore thought-provoking subjects. Guess you can say everyone involved Brailled It!
See the trailer attached hereto.
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