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Jakarta Post

Because 'God made them blind'

There was once a family of 22 children blinded by cataracts living in the isolated mountains of Bali

Trisha Sertori (The Jakarta Post)
Gianyar
Thu, October 23, 2008

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Because 'God made them blind'

There was once a family of 22 children blinded by cataracts living in the isolated mountains of Bali.

For more than a dozen years, The John Fawcett Foundation in Bali tried to persuade the family patriarch that their sight could be restored.

However, because "God made them blind", an otherwise loving father believed the children's fate was karma, an immutable force which cannot be interfered with.

This family is one of the keystones in the documentary produced and directed by West Australian Richard Todd, God Made Them Blind.

The documentary, screening at the ongoing Balinale International Film Festival 2008, traces John Fawcett's journey from his native Australia to Bali where he has worked tirelessly to restore sight to thousands of Indonesians struck blind by cataracts.

This is one of the simplest of all medical procedures bordering on the miraculous. Restoring sight also restores quality of life, allowing people to once again attend school or work.

When Richard Todd heard about the work of The John Fawcett Foundation, he quickly recognized its value as a documentary subject.

"I was searching for stories about people helping other people for a possible series called Helping Hands. I was in Bali when a teacher friend said I had to meet this guy John Fawcett.

"I tried to meet with him, but, would you believe it, he was in Perth. I got in touch with him there and within the first five minutes saw he was a truly lovely gentleman. Within 30 minutes I knew there was an important story to be told," Todd told The Jakarta Post over the telephone this week.

Knowing the pitfalls and protracted timeframes for fund-raising for documentaries, Todd said, he made a promotional DVD for the Fawcett Foundation as a gift -- long before making the full-length documentary -- to help the organization in its own fund-raising efforts.

To date the film has screened on Australian television's ABC network and at five international film festivals around the world, including the Idaho Sun Valley Film Festival where it won the award for best documentary.

At each screening, audiences have wept in sadness and joy, Todd said.

"There was a moment where I got to film a cataract operation on a two-year-old. Seeing her reaction to light (post-operatively) and then for her to see her parents for the first time was a pretty moving moment -- there weren't many dry eyes in the theater," said Todd of one of the film's most joyous segments.

A tragic moment comes when a 56-year-old woman is told her expected operation can not proceed.

"We were suddenly told one of the people the organization had wanted to help had complications and her cataracts could not be removed. That was a very moving experience and deeply saddening."

Todd chose the film's title, God Made Them Blind, from the above quote from Fawcett because it highlights the chasm between modern medicine and longstanding religious beliefs.

"John says the hardest part of building the cataract program was not the fund-raising for mobile buses to get operating clinics into the remote areas of Bali, but getting people on the bus for treatment. There is such a strong belief that cataract blindness is their fate.

"John talked to me about a family of 22 kids who all have lost their sight because of cataracts. Their father believed God had made them blind. This deep theme recurs through the film; we spent a lot of time developing it," said Todd.

He added Fawcett was "dogged by a Western belief system" which collided with the Hindu karmic acceptance of disability and disease.

"It's nice to see John's partial acceptance and molding of his own belief system so that they mesh with those of the people the organization is helping," he said.

An example in the film of the coming together of east and west is when young Ketut finally has her sight restored after a 13-year dialogue with her family on karma versus her right to sight.

"John tried to convince one family for 13 years to have the children's sight restored. One of those 22 kids is Ketut. She becomes one of the stars of the documentary as we followed her journey from blindness to vision."

God Made Them Blind gives audiences a glimpse into the other side of Bali and was shot in some of the province's most remote regions.

"I had been coming to Bali for many years and I had never seen this side of it. This is the real Bali," Todd said.

The Balinale International Film Festival opened Tuesday, Oct. 21, and runs until Oct. 31. For God Made Them Blind screening dates, visit www.balinale.com or call 081 239 825 69.

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