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SENSE OF SIGHT
The film sets the viewers up for a semi-comedic meeting of the parents who do not yet know that he’s black until all of the sudden, on the way to their house, a deer runs out in front of their car and is killed. Rose acts nonchalantly about it, but we see Chris’s eyes hyper focused on the face of the dying animal with a disturbed and grieving expression which signals that the weekend will be less than normal (Avella).
Sense of Sight: About
Chris’s occupation as a photographer is dependent upon his sight, and because of his job, he brings his DSLR camera with him to Rose’s family home. The camera, which he wears slung around his neck, is an extension of his own eyes and offers a lens through which he observes the odd behaviors of the white people he meets at the Armitages’.
At the garden party they host, Chris spots another black person initially through the lens of his camera. Chris realizes that something is off when the man, Logan, talks with him with a glassy, unfocused gaze in his eyes. Chris attempts to take a photo of Logan, but when the flash goes off, Logan snaps. He suddenly becomes fearful, starts to bleed from his nose, and begins screaming “Get out!” at Chris, which is a method of foreshadowing and Logan’s’ way of attempting to save Chris from his fate (Cruz).
Sense of Sight: Welcome
While at the party, Chris meets Jim Hudson, a white art dealer who is a big fan of Chris’s photography despite being blind himself. It is discovered later that Jim wishes to purchase Chris’s eyes, which is especially surprising because Jim appears to be different from the other white people present at the party and Chris appears more at ease with him than with the others.
It is significant that the man who purchases Chris for ocular transplantation at the garden party auction is both physically blind and appears to be “colorblind”. In contrast to the other white people in the film, Jim doesn’t seem to “see color”, but as with white colorblindness, he doesn’t actually have any concern for the safety or wellbeing of black people (Cruz).
Sense of Sight: About
Throughout the film, a parallel between the importance of Chris’s camera in capturing the events at the Armitage estate and the importance of cameras and video recordings in documenting police violence against African Americans can be drawn. What is visible through the lens of a camera is just as powerful as what is visible through eyes, if not more so, because it is a means of documenting moments for future viewing (Cruz).
Vision is a sense that is linked to perspective, or how one sees the world and this film communicates to viewers unique way in which black people see and are seen in American society. Metaphorical white blindness in colorblind America shapes the social illusion that black people have no reason to be scared, bitter, or angry (Benjamin).
Sense of Sight: About
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