Lovett Productions Presents

Going Blind

Most of my work has demystified taboo subjects such as AIDS, Cancer, ALS, Addiction -- topics that become much less frightening when presented in a personal, plain spoken manner. A previous film, Cancer: Evolution to Revolution, which I wrote, produced, directed and hosted for HBO, won the George Foster Peabody Award for the year 2000 as well as an Emmy nomination and many advocacy awards. Jane Brody raved about it in the New York Times, advising anyone without cable to have someone tape it -- she considered it so important.

Like the cancer film, GOING BLIND is a first-person verité film. I will use my experience having lost half my visual field to glaucoma and fighting to save the other half (surgeries, medications, etc) to shed more light and perspective on other people’s experiences.

Many of these people I will meet on the street, helping them to cross, and begin our conversations as they face the difficulty of navigating a city street. From there, we'll get to know our characters in their day-to-day lives and learn how they lost their vision and why.

We will speak to experts to better understand the field of ophthalmic research:

What do we know now that we didn’t understand ten years ago? Are there interventions for those of us predisposed to sight stealers? What can we do to make our lives safer and more effective as our vision dims? Is there action that we can take to slow down the process, stop it, or reverse it?

We'll speak with low vision therapists, researchers on the bench, and doctors conducting clinical trials. All of the "expert testimony" will be in the framework of the patient experience – including participation in clinical trials.

We will ask how different blinding diseases might "shed light" on each other? Will anti-angiogenesis therapies that are now effective in reversing macular degeneration be able to help other eye diseases?

By addressing the issues of coping with sight loss, we will explore the world of low vision therapy where patients are taught to maximize the sight they have. To that end we plan an extensive outreach campaign with a website to link and refer to an alliance of advocacy groups, health institutions, and the media.

For information on how to support GOING BLIND please email info@lovettproductions.com.