By Rachel Galvin
Trudging through snowy hills, traversing through the rainforest, walking through the sifting sand of the desert… the Montreal-based Pelletier family took the type of worldwide trip that many would dream about. But the reason for this sojourn was bittersweet. The idea for the trip came about when the parents discovered that three out of their four young children had a rare genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa. This incurable malady would lead the children to become blind. Feeling hopeless since there was no cure available, parents Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier decided the best course of action was to take the kids on a bucket list trip around the world to fill their minds with visual memories they could look back on when seeing was no longer possible, to capture the moments before the light fades.
Mia, who was then 11, wanted to go horseback riding in Mongolia. Six-year-old Colin wanted to sleep on a train, Leo, 9, wanted to see elephants. Laurent, 4, wanted to drink juice on a camel … The list of things to do was long and varied, and it took them all over the globe to achieve — to Indonesia, Namibia, Nepal, the Amazon Basin, and beyond. For 76 days, a film crew followed them along their journey, filming footage of beautiful landscapes and precious moments. The children embraced nature, from hiking in the mountains, to letting sand sift through their fingers, to playing with stray pets along the way. All the while, they were being homeschooled, chiming in with their times tables as they walked along the path.
The memories were preserved in a beautifully-made National Geographic documentary called “Blink,” directed by Edmund Stenson and Academy Award-winner Daniel Roher. This was Roher’s first film since his Academy Award and BAFTA-winning movie “Navalny,” for which Stenson was an associate editor. That film, produced by CNN Films and HBO Max, was about the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and events related to his poisoning, long before his suspicious death earlier this year.
“Blink” was an equally poignant and heartfelt film, telling the story of one family on the journey of their life in more ways than one.
For their global trip, the Pelletier family had a budget of $200 a day and stayed in homestays and hostels to really get to know the culture. It wasn’t an easy journey, there were plenty of challenges along the way, but they persevered and made friends from around the world, which was another item on the bucket list.
In quiet moments, when life was not so chaotic, the children had private epiphanies, realizations of what this disease means for their future. Those moments were hard for their mother, especially, to bear.
From the very beginning, the premise of this film makes it a tear-jerker. How could something so damaging happen to innocent children? The way the story is told, through voice-over and interviews, as well as footage all along the journey, makes this a beautiful film to watch. The reality of the moment, however, is what grips you. Overall, the film makes you want to watch it again, to have a part in the wanderlust and perhaps hold on to hope for a better inevitable future.
“Blink,” which is told in French with English subtitles, will be launched theatrically in the U.S. and Canada October 4. For more information on the film, visit https://films.nationalgeographic.com/blink.