Window of the Soul

A sensitive statement about the importance of vision and our dependency on it, and on how malleable and adaptive is our soul. Nineteen people with differing degrees of visual impairment - from mild nearsightedness to total blindness - discuss how they see themselves, how they see others and how they perceive the world. Writer and Nobel laureate José Saramago, musician Hermeto Paschoal, filmmaker Wim Wenders, blind Franco-Slovenian photographer Evgen Bavcar, neurologist Oliver Sacks, actress Marieta Severo, blind city councilman Arnaldo Godoy, among others, make personal and surprising revelations about various aspects of vision - the physiological working of the eye; the use of glasses and what it means about personality; the meaning of seeing or not seeing in a world saturated by images; and, also, the importance of emotions in transforming reality if, that is, there is such a thing common to all. Unusual images, of burning trees or empty deserts, link the interviews, which vary from deep to funny to poetic. —Anonymous