Victory Over Darkness

I saw Victory Over Darkness this year at a private LA screening. I was lucky enough to attend a screening where not only the director was present, but the remarkable cast, too. > In brief, Victory Over Darkness gives a quirky portrait of three blind people who enter an insane all-day triathlon (one of those crazy Ironman competitions). Superficially, the film interweaves the VERY interesting stories about how each competitor became blind with the crack of the starting gun on their big day at Ironman (yes, believe it or not, blind people can compete in this day-long race which involves biking, swimming, and running a marathon). > I'd heard about the film through the doc grapevine and figured since it was about both the blind AND a hardcore athletic competition that I would be sitting through another bougie Sundance-type feel good doc with a "triumph over adversity", "count your lucky stars", "now I feel thankful about my own life", blah, blah, blah kind of movie. Lazy cynic that I am, I try to avoid this type of film whenever possible...the last thing I need is to be shamed by people with lives 100 times harder than my own who manage to accomplish 1000 times more than I ever could. > Okay, I admit, I walked out feeling inspired. And I admit I could not hold back the tears at the end! But why I LOVED this film was that this filmmaker (Donnie Eicher) gave me something even better than all of that crap we can see coming from a mile away. He gave me three very strange, very interesting portraits that will stay with me for a long, long time. > The three main characters in the film were featured because A) they were blind and B) they voluntarily entered the kind of competition only madmen find enjoyable. But neither of these things -- both remarkable in their own right -- had me tearing holes in the fabric of my seat at the Landmark. By the time the Ironman race started I was so entangled in these three people that I simply had to know what the hell was going to happen to them during their grueling race. > Watching this doc and knowing how docs get edited, it's easy to imagine how its investors could have insisted that the filmmaker cut it into just another feel good "victory over being blind" kind of inspirational/sports film. Somehow, the filmmaker managed to make it a film about victory over the mortal coil. What's so moving about each of the three main characters is not their super-human qualities, but their super human qualities: their frailty and humanity. > Even a lazy shlub like myself -- who avoids any sports doc that makes me feel bad about that neglected gym bag I can see out of the corner of my eye even now as I'm typing -- actually left this film feeling inspired about, well, the human condition. > I was so inspired I was almost too scared to congratulate the director and cast at the after party! Kudos to you all! > I feel compelled to add to IMDBs suggested "recommendations". They're weak. I say if you liked the following films, you'll love Victory Over Darkness: Gray Gardens, Capturing The Friedmans, Hoop Dreams, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Champ, Rocky, I Heart Huckabees.