Going Blind film at World Ophthalmology Congress

Joe Lovett's film, Going Blind will be screened at the World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin in June. Ophthalmology Times Europe strongly recommends that all doctors put this on their schedule if they are visiting the congress. The movie will be screened at 18:00-20:00 in the Stockholm Room.

US documentary film director, Joe, was diagnosed with glaucoma 22 years ago and since then he has been progressively losing his vision. Six years ago, he decided to make his film to document the impact that blindness had on people’s lives and also to relay his own experience with the condition.

Joe wants to make the public more aware of the importance of regular eye exams and low vision aids. He also wants to highlight the importance of patient quality of life and education to the ophthalmology community, as well as to provide specialists with a tool for their own patient education initiatives.

Joe told OTEurope: “We have been getting an extraordinary response to the film among ophthalmologists. August Colenbrander, MD, one of the leading low vision experts in the world, was particularly taken with the film and has encouraged the WOC to have a special screening of the film on June 8th in Berlin.”

Joe's plea is: “There are too many people with vision loss who could benefit from much earlier diagnosis and intervention and dramatically increased awareness of what's possible in vision rehabilitation. I would ask that physicians don't wait until we've lost much of our vision before they talk to us about vision rehabilitation, including the services and resources that can help us live most effectively and plan positively for the future.

“Please refer us to these specialists and don't ever tell patients that there is nothing more that can be done! There are always new skills to learn. Enormous progress has come through the power of strong advocates. We have many disability role models who broke the rules and made stunning progress! We need to do the same to increase public awareness of sight loss!

““This is our challenge. Our hope is that our film, Going Blind will play some small part. ”