On Tuesday April 30th Going Blind: Coming out of the Dark About Vision Loss premiered at the New York State House in Albany in room 104A of the Legislative Office Building to a room full of legislators, health professionals, advocates and staff. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Chair of the Assembly Health Committee and Senator Kemp Hannon, Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Healthco-hosted the event. First the audience mingled at a reception for the event and met with Joe Lovett, director of the film, and Julie Gayin, Outreach Coordinator, where they could learn more about the outreach for Going Blind and the work that has been done so far. Next Joe Lovett and Assemblyman Gottfried gave special introductions for the opening remarks.
After the audience witnessed an abridged screening of Going Blind, an expert panel discussed the film and the politics of vision care, and fielded audience questions. The panel consisted of:
Joseph Lovett: Director of Going Blind: Coming out of the Dark About Vision Loss
Pat Williams: Program Support Assistant at the NY Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and a character in Going Blind
John Farina: Assistive Technology Instructor
Leah Pagnozzi: Graduate Student and Researcher, Cornell University, Biomedical Engineering Department
Dr. Albert Morier: M.A., O.D.
Dr. Paul Beer: MD, of Retina Consultants
A live Twitter feed of the event was provided by Raul Lovett and Julie Gaynin and can be viewed at https://twitter.com/GoingBlindMovie under the date April 30
For more photographs of the event please visit the Going Blind Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GoingBlindMovie/photos_stream
A special thanks goes out to: The offices of Richard Gottfried and Kemp Hannon, and all of our panelists.
Additional thanks to: Reader’s Digest Partner’s for Sight Foundation, Pfizer Ophthalmics, Allergan Foundation, National Eye Institute, Gibney Family Foundation, Allene Reuss Memorial Trust, Bloomberg Foundation. The Frank DeCoizart Charitable Trust, The Rudin Family Foundations, The Olcott Family Foundation, American Council of the Blind of New York, Linda Dawes, Ed Harris, Chris Burke, and Nancy Miller.
