
CLIMBING BLIND
DIRECTOR: Alastair Lee
SCOTLAND / 2020
BOFA 2021 Online Film Festival
RUNNING TIME: 81 MINS
Astounded and lost in admiration.
-Joe Simpson, Touching the Void.
“I have a genetic condition that affects my eyes.” As an understatement, this is up there with the best; Jesse Dufton was born with very limited vision, and things have gone downhill since then. Now, at over 30, he is virtually blind. So what better idea than to go rock-climbing at weekends? And to attempt one of the most challenging climbs in the UK, the 137m high Old Man of Hoy. Using his fiancée Molly as a pair of talking eyes, he inches his way up sheer faces over the boiling Atlantic surf, using his intuition, skill, and utter confidence in Molly’s instructions. “If you can share your eyes, then you are capable of doing anything,” she airily notes, as Jesse take his life in his own hands – and eventually summits the Old Man. Using stunning photography to capture the bleak and incredibly challenging environment, Jesse’s self confidence and humour shine a bright light on the ability of disabled people to conquer astonishing challenges – and their fears.