The documentary OPEN YOUR EYES which follows a husband and wife who are both blind in rural Nepal and the Seva Outreach Team that restores their sight will premiere on HBO on on July 18th.
Told through the intimate lens of an elderly blind couple from Nepal, the film, executive produced by Laurene Powell Jobs, brings vital attention to cataract blindness and the shockingly cheap surgery (only three U.S. dollars!) that is restoring eyesight to thousands in rural poverty stricken areas.
OPEN YOUR EYES is directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky (Beware the Slenderman, Peabody Award-winning Hear and Now) and produced by Dr. Larry Brilliant, the pioneering physician who served as the director of Google’s philanthropy division.
The film follows the extraordinary journey of Manisara and Durga, an elderly couple in a remote mountain village in Nepal. Living for decades under the Himalayan sun, their eyes have slowly turned milky white with cataracts that have left them completely blind. When a team of eye specialists combing the mountainside village presents an opportunity for a free surgery to restore their sight, the couple begins a life-changing journey down the mountain to see again.
Married for more than 50 years and living in the foothills of Nepal, they are no longer the industrious farmers they once were. Manisara peels turmeric root most days and Durga can’t navigate the warren of pathways around him nor can he feed his animals. They feel dependent on their family for even the most basic needs. There are no cars to transport them. Life has become static.
A team of Nepali eye specialists combing the mountainside find them and urge them to come to the city for a chance to see again. A surgeon has come from Kathmandu, and the surgery is free. But the taste of defeat and growing old has made Manisara skeptical. And besides, who would even carry her down the mountain?
Their youngest granddaughter plops herself in Manisara’s lap, and her grandmother starts running her hands over the little girl’s feet, her legs, her nose. Is she like me? Touching the child, Manisara connects her past to her future.
Manisara and Durga are finally convinced. They set out for the eye hospital, tripping over goats and stones as they go, towards the distant city. They are carried, guided and then driven on a bewildering odyssey to restore their sight.
They arrive at the hospital and hear scores of other patients also waiting. Everyone has come for a miracle.
Cataract blindness affects millions of people in the developing world and yet can be cured for only a few dollars per patient. The Seva Foundation, an NGO co-founded by the film’s producer Dr. Larry Brilliant, is responsible for successfully restoring sight to 4 million blind people worldwide.