The world is closing in on the Pelletier family, and retinitis pigmentosa is the cause.

An incurable disease, retinitis pigmentosa slowly erodes the vision into a closing iris of tunnel vision. Three of the four Pelletier children have it, and it’s already obliterated their night vision. Peripheral vision is next, then what’s right in front of them. So what do mom and dad do? They set off on a globetrotting expedition to fill their visual memory.

Directed by Daniel Roher and Edmund Stenson, Blink follows the Pelletiers as they hopscotch around a dozen icon worldwide stops. It’s a bittersweet venture that isn’t exactly filled with hope but isn’t a downer, either. It’s a short and sweet look at two parents’ devotion to their children and the quest to give them something they’ll never have again.

Traveling on roughly $200 a day—they camp mostly and ride steerage when they can—the Pelletiers are one adventurous family. Hailing from Montreal, they are the communal kind and seem to have no issue making friends or entertaining each other. The parents have learned to “embrace the chaos,” as they tell the filmmakers. At one point, the mother, Edith, expresses pity for the sound team: They have to listen to their kids running around and screaming every day.

How much the kids understand what is happening depends heavily on their age. Mia, the oldest, already seems to have embraced the tactility of existence. In one scene, she constantly runs her hand through the sand while she and her mother watch the sunset. The youngest child, who’s only five, has been told he’s going blind but doesn’t quite know what that means. The middle child is, understandably, in between.

Blink is full of hope for these kids—and their ability to learn how to navigate the world—and these parents, who will be with them every step of the way. At no point do you worry about the Pelletiers.

That makes me wonder about the lone child not affected by retinitis pigmentosa. Will some strange form of survivor’s guilt overtake him in a few years after his siblings have gone legally blind? Surrounded by a doc crew, the family gives the appearance of communal bliss. But after the cameras leave, will the disease bonding the family leave him out?

None of this is in the documentary; these are just the dark musings that overcome me in a movie containing this much saccharine joy. Even getting stuck in a gondola in Ecuador for hours on end doesn’t seem to dampen this family’s spirits. Surely, something must rattle them.

Whatever that is, it isn’t to be found in Blink. Instead, it’s just 80 minutes of a tight-knit, fun-loving family on a vacation none of them will ever forget.

Blink (2024)
Directed by Daniel Roher, Edmund Stenson
Produced by Diane Becker, Melanie Miller
National Geographic Films, Rated PG, Running time 84 minutes, Premiered Aug. 30, 2024 at the Telluride Film Festival

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