Vision Portraits

This deeply personal documentary chronicles thefilmmaker’s loss of vision due to a rare genetic eyedisorder and 3 artists with a similar fate. Told in fourchapters, the film is a celebration of the possibilitiesof art created by the Manhattan photographer JohnDugdale, the Bronx-based dancer Kayla Hamilton, theCanadian writer Ryan Knighton, and the filmmakerhimself, who each experience varying degrees of visualimpairment. Using archival material alongside newilluminating interviews and observational footage ofthe artists at work, Evans has created a meditation onblindness and creativity, a sensual work that opens upnew possibilities. 'Vision Portraits is my personal storyof going on a scientific and artistic journey to betterunderstand the ramifications of my deteriorating vision,'Evans wrote. 'I wanted the film to specifically focus onthe ways each artist was impacted by the loss of theirvision and the ways in which their creative processthrives in spite of their blindness. … As a filmmaker withonly twenty percent of my visual field remaining, I amforced to work in new, more collaborative ways whilealso being part of a long tradition of artists seeing inhighly idiosyncratic ways.' Evans utilizes experimentalfilmmaking techniques in POV shots in an effort torender the remaining vision of some of the artistsprofiled.