For the Moon

At a boarding school for blind and partially sighted teenagers in Paris, students use their own video footage to offer strikingly upbeat perspectives on their disability. Iris describes in matter-of-fact terms how she lost both her eyes, but says she is glad not to be in pain anymore. Jade explains why she prefers nighttime to daytime, and talks about the mysterious things that happen behind her eyelids.

Whether making music or playing sports, the young people display both humor and perseverance. They show viewers around their rooms and demonstrate the techniques they use to play the piano or type on a computer. Playfully, they explore the possibilities of the camera.

The footage was shot alternately by the director and by the students themselves. Using the small cameras that filmmaker and artist Éric Baudelaire gave them to tell their own stories, they create abstract, sometimes disorientating images that offer a moving testament to the power of other senses, and to their own resilience.