Light of Mine

Portland filmmaker Brett Eichenberger's first feature film tells the story of Owen, an aspiring photographer with an eye disease that has left him without sight in one eye and will soon leave him blind in both. A powerful look at a man and woman facing a crisis. A genetic ailment is about to steal his sight. The fact that he's a photographer adds both irony and insight. He and his wife choose to spend his last days with eyesight on a journey to Yellowstone Park. Owen, determined to photograph despite his loss of sight, discovers that he has a choice to see what he wants to see. Told with grace and beauty. First rate cinematography coaxes hope out from seeming tragedy. A fine indie film worth seeing with someone you love.

There cannot be a spoiler as the very first scene starring the principal actors Rebecca Sanborn and Ji Tanzer visiting an ocular specialist delivers a diagnosis that the rest of this swift and emotionally powerful movie forces us, along with the characters to empathetically adjust to. Beautifully filmed in lush if twilit Portland, the verdant and dun awesome Columbia River Gorge and a Yellowstone Park more vivid than the Flintstones. The actors all seem natural, as though playing themselves, yet from the Q & A at the premiere at the Whitsell Theater in the Portland Art Museum this is not a biographical story. Without the volatile and edgy conflict of a John Cassavettes film, "Light of Mine" conveys the stakes involved for the characters, suggesting the gravity of inevitability, yet leavened with the little window of wonder that a loving human (if a Higher Power happens to be away on business) can provide. This movie feels like it planted a seed that will blossom within me whenever the going gets tougher than I feel up to handling...

My husband and I were very excited to learn of and to be able to attend "Light of Mine". We were especially surprised to learn that the film directly addressed LHON, Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy--the same affliction my husband and his brother both have. Although my husband and his brother both lost most of their sight before they were married/while still living at home with their parents, this film still addressed some of the emotion I have dealt with being the spouse of someone who is legally blind/having lost their sight. The amazing range of emotions those involved face, as well as the possible visual affect taking place for the afflicted, were competently addressed. Being a fully-sighted individual, the scenery of Yellowstone was breathtaking (having been there before, the varied landscapes and wildlife were vivid reminders of what I experienced)! We so appreciated the attention to detail put into this movie. Thank you, and we look forward to it coming out in more venues and on more media in the near future.

This movie does a fine job of capturing the emotional impact Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) has on both the individual affected and their loved one(s). Having a teenage son who lost his sight to LHON just one year ago, the feelings are still raw. The way in which the wife supports her husband and encourages him mirrors precisely how a loved one should respond in this situation. She does not become overly protective, nor is she insensitive to his loss. She balances sensitivity and encouragement equally. This film captures the grieving process realistically as well as portrays the essential need to cope with the loss in a healthy way so that one can continue to live life to the fullest. Though Owen's future is not revealed, the movie leaves you with the sense that LHON will not rob Owen of joy.

Married couple embark on a life-changing road trip to Yellowstone national park after the husband (Tanzer) is diagnosed with an incurable disease that is rapidly robbing him of his vision, and his livelihood.

Plenty of emotion from both Tanzer and Sanborn as his grieving wife coming to grips with becoming her husband's carer, but the narrative structure is very loose and there's simply not enough plot to go the distance.

Occasionally moving, the performances are committed and sincere, the scenery toward the end is spectacular, but the movie becomes little more than a morose highway postcard. Earnest attempt but needed more storyline to sustain itself, and might have fared better as a short film.