‘Vision Portraits’ Film Review: Visually Impaired Filmmaker Explores Artists Working Without Sight

It would be understandable if independent filmmaker Rodney Evans (“Brother to Brother,” “The Happy Sad”) turned inward to deal with a life-changing medical diagnosis like retinitis pigmentosa. After all, the disease, which has destroyed 80% of his visual field thus far, has the potential to severely limit not only his everyday life, but also his life’s work. Instead, however, this imposed limitation inspired him to seek out new forms of perception. Initially, he had planned only to interview other artists who have grappled with visual impairment. But eventually, he decided that his own journey was an important element of the story — or, as it turns out, multitudinous stories — he wanted to tell. So Evans intersperses his own experience with those of three others, finding comforting commonalities and essential differences. The result is artistically uneven in structure but emotionally powerful throughout. Also Read: 'In the Dark' Producers Explain Why They Didn't Cast a Blind Actress in the Lead Role John Dugdale is an accomplished photographer who lost his eyesight due to both AIDS-related complications and tragic medical neglect. But like the other subjects, he has little use for resentment. He is far too busy trying to transfer a seemingly...