OUT OF SIGHT U.S. Independents - Documentaries

Acclaimed filmmaker David Sutherland (Feast of the Gods) continues to redefine the stylistic limits of the documentary in Out of Sight, his film about a blind Northern California woman. “I don’t know if America is ready for a blind girl who isn’t a goody two shoes,” says the film’s 34-year-old star Diane Starin. Sutherland doesn’t try to force our sympathy for his subject, who comes across as someone as flawed as she is admirable. Using stylized, re-enacted “flashbacks” to incidents in Starin’s past, Sutherland examines her complex relationships with family, friends, and lovers, especially her infidelities to her 60-year-old, terminally ill, alcoholic boyfriend. This is no “inspirational” film about the handicapped subject. In fact, Starin’s blindness takes a back seat tb the larger narrative of her life in a work that demonstrates the filmmaker’s highly innovative approach to storytelling.