Friday Night Blind: Bowling Without Sight
Scott Krahn and Robb Fischer’s short film follows a trio of friends who take part in a bowling league for people who are visually impaired.
Transcript
00:00 [ Music ]
00:06 [ Background Noise ]
00:30 >> All right, Gina.
00:31 >> All right, Gina.
00:34 >> Don't start no shit, it won't be nothing.
00:37 [ Laughter ]
00:39 [ Background Noise ]
00:52 >> I got a strike.
00:54 [ Cheering ]
00:56 >> There you go, Gina.
00:58 Yeah, girl, there you go.
01:00 Shut up, girl.
01:02 [ Laughter ]
01:05 [ Music ]
01:19 >> When do I start?
01:20 >> Oh, where's that?
01:22 >> What do you want to hear?
01:23 >> What do you got?
01:25 >> Oh. You want me to just-- oh, right there.
01:31 Okay. Y'all can hear me?
01:34 This way towards you?
01:37 Over here?
01:40 >> You see me?
01:44 >> No, I can't see you.
01:45 What a joke.
01:46 I can hear you.
01:48 Ask me what I miss about my sighted life.
01:53 Who are you?
01:55 >> Yeah.
01:56 >> It be hard.
01:58 It be hard sometimes.
02:00 I struggle through the day.
02:02 Trust me, I do walk in the stuff sometimes.
02:05 This is my kitchen that I don't like right now.
02:09 I be frustrated when I know I can't pit around my house
02:13 and do the work like I want to.
02:17 >> Player on.
02:19 Play.
02:20 Current position.
02:21 Library of Congress, Annotation.
02:23 >> I was able to read, which is one of my passions.
02:27 I could read a quarter-size print books,
02:29 even though I held them really close to my face.
02:33 Between '94 and 2000, I had lost all my vision.
02:38 This is a mixed yarn, and I used my color identifier
02:42 to tell me which one was what color.
02:45 >> You got to make your own steps.
02:47 Like, I have different things around here.
02:49 I got talking clocks.
02:51 >> The time is 12.
02:53 >> This is the Alveo reader.
02:56 This is the stuff I want you to read.
02:58 >> This is a barcode reader, okay?
03:01 >> You have to organize your stuff.
03:03 I label something, I label and put it in here.
03:06 >> Ultra-healing moisturizer, extra dry skin.
03:09 >> It's hard.
03:11 People say, "To lose your sight?
03:15 Oh, that's real rough on you."
03:18 Now, it's different if a person never had sight before.
03:24 [typewriter clacking]
03:27 >> Let me get another card.
03:30 It's called a Perkins Braille writer.
03:33 You can live your life just like everybody else.
03:36 You may have to do things in a different way,
03:38 and there's really no right way or wrong way to do it.
03:40 You just learn to do things the way that works out for you.
03:46 [bell ringing]
03:48 >> Sorry.
03:50 Another clock.
03:52 We're going to get interrupted a few times.
03:55 I just started collecting clocks.
03:57 I went to other places and they had clocks,
03:59 and I thought it was just kind of neat.
04:01 So, it sounds nice.
04:03 It's company, and I just liked them.
04:06 >> Sandy is my roadie.
04:09 Me and Sandy goes out to...
04:11 [indistinct chatter]
04:13 ...clock.
04:15 Okay, me and Sandy goes to the mall together.
04:17 We cook together.
04:19 We sit on the phone, run our mouth.
04:21 But I learned a lot watching the things that she do
04:25 because Sandy was born blind,
04:28 and Sandy gets around good.
04:31 >> I am just totally amazed
04:33 at how well Sandy travels all over the world on her own.
04:37 >> Yeah, I do have a sense of adventure.
04:39 I've always traveled all my life,
04:41 but I collect magnets.
04:43 When everybody comes in, they look and they say,
04:45 "Have you really been to all those places?"
04:47 And I say, "Yes."
04:50 >> Whatever disability you got,
04:52 don't let it get you down
04:54 because I was stressed out a long time,
04:56 but now I get my purse, my shoes, and my coat,
05:00 and I'm hitting that door whenever I get ready, okay?
05:04 It's a bus. Awesome. I'm finna go.
05:07 Don't let nothing get in your way.
05:09 Oops, see? That's what I do.
05:12 Okay. Hello? Is it open?
05:15 Nope. I'm coming, honey.
05:17 >> If I have a chance to go somewhere,
05:20 sometimes I go out to lunch with somebody
05:21 depending on what's going on.
05:23 >> I might surprise myself with something like it.
05:25 Yeah, I tried those corn nuggets a shanty.
05:28 >> Who has the lane assignments?
05:30 >> I think I'm on lane seven.
05:32 >> Friday, of course, is bowling.
05:35 >> You know, most leagues are composed of fully sighted bowlers.
05:39 This league has people who are totally blind,
05:44 fully sighted, and some that have some vision.
05:49 >> Sixty.
05:51 >> There's no other assistance given.
05:54 They throw their own balls and are responsible for the count.
05:59 >> Come on, curve.
06:01 Curve some more. It ain't curving.
06:04 Okay, you got the one, two, five up here.
06:08 >> This me?
06:10 Where my ball at?
06:13 >> Milwaukee Bear Bears, the Blind League,
06:15 Sandy got me to do that.
06:18 >> You go to a bowling alley and you hear people bowling.
06:23 And you can tell when they hit the pins.
06:28 And to me, the alley just seems like a long ramp
06:32 that when you throw the ball, it just goes down there.
06:35 And if you go off that beaten trail,
06:37 then you're going to fall in the gutter.
06:40 >> What'd I do, nine?
06:44 >> Oh, shit.
06:47 Over here.
06:50 Where my ball? Let me see.
06:52 Joy, you show this my ball.
06:54 I ain't putting my hand out there.
06:56 Okay, I get my ball off the rack.
06:58 And I pick it up.
07:00 I step up and I walk the rail.
07:03 And when I get to the end of the rail,
07:06 I might drop it or whatever they say, cross over.
07:11 And just throw it.
07:14 Just throw it.
07:16 Uh-oh.
07:19 I got the gutter.
07:22 [ball bouncing]
07:25 Goddamn gutter again.
07:28 What frame is this?
07:30 Wait a minute, I'm going in somebody else's lane.
07:33 I don't know who the best bowler, but I know who the worst.
07:36 You look a little.
07:39 What I got on the board, none--
07:42 Goddamn it, gutter!
07:45 My best game ever was last year.
07:48 I bowled a 128.
07:50 My worst game, I bowled a zero.
07:53 [laughs]
07:56 I find the rail, and I find this one spot on the rail.
08:02 And that's my starting point.
08:05 I try to picture the pins down there, even though I can't.
08:08 I picture them in my head.
08:12 Yes, when I release the ball,
08:15 I listen.
08:17 [ball bouncing]
08:20 How many did I take out?
08:22 I kind of walk away, though, but I turn my back on them
08:25 because I don't want to jinx myself.
08:27 Eight? I'll take that. Hey!
08:30 There are a few people who are a little bit more competitive.
08:34 What do we got for a score?
08:36 688 to 681.
08:38 Oh, shit.
08:40 You're on your last leg.
08:43 Okay, and I'm up?
08:45 [ball bouncing]
08:47 I need a strike now.
08:50 I need a strike.
08:53 [ball bouncing]
08:56 I need a strike, I need a strike, I need a strike,
09:00 I need a strike.
09:03 [ball bouncing]
09:06 [ball bouncing]
09:08 Keep your arm.
09:12 Two.
09:13 Hey, good ball, Rhonda.
09:15 You think so?
09:17 I think so.
09:19 How about a sit-down?
09:22 I got a strike?
09:24 You had the 710, and they both fell down.
09:26 Oh, nice!
09:28 Jeff owned me after giving me those gutter balls.
09:32 [laughs]
09:34 I got a split.
09:36 Well, split yourself and sit down.
09:41 Split yourself and sit down.
09:42 We trash talk all the time.
09:44 Where my ball at?
09:46 Judy Booty.
09:48 I don't know it say Judy Booty.
09:50 Judy Blue?
09:52 It says kiss my ass on it.
09:54 Some of the bowlers used to talk shit about me bowling.
09:58 They want me on the team, and I was told them.
10:01 It say kiss my ass.
10:04 [laughs]
10:06 That's the first time I've seen my ball.
10:10 Gutter, Joey!
10:12 I did not know Judy had kiss my ass on that ball.
10:16 That is definitely Judy.
10:19 [laughs]
10:21 Yeah, I got a nickname.
10:23 They call me Judy Booty.
10:25 They've been calling me that ever since I was a little girl.
10:28 They used to have a song sing.
10:30 ♪ Judy, Judy with the ice cream booty ♪
10:33 ♪ Judy, Judy with the concrete booty ♪
10:36 Judy is a trip.
10:39 She's a lot of fun.
10:40 I don't know anyone that can compete with Judy.
10:42 She's very unique. She's Judy.
10:44 That guy ain't worth shit. Go to Queens.
10:47 That lady over there call me crazy lady.
10:49 Crazy lady!
10:51 [laughs]
10:53 Joey!
10:55 I'm gonna pick your little bitty ass up.
10:57 Come here, let me show you.
10:59 I'm starting to get to that drunk.
11:01 When I'm with her, a lot of times she drinks Moscato wine.
11:03 This my favorite drink.
11:05 I'm a grind wall with a titty in it.
11:08 You don't know about a titty?
11:09 It's my guy to go. I can't tell y'all nothing.
11:12 Okay, Joanne.
11:14 I don't bowl that good.
11:16 It go wherever I want to go.
11:18 It might give me a pin, it might give me a gutter.
11:20 But I did it. Hear me?
11:22 I don't be ashamed about me not getting no points or gutter balls.
11:27 I'm out here trying.
11:29 You got to try it, right?
11:31 [thud]
11:33 But I do listen sometimes.
11:37 I don't know if it be my pins or somebody else's.
11:40 And sometimes it do be my pins.
11:43 [laughs]
11:45 Did you use to bowl when you had a cycle?
11:47 No, I was motorcycle riding, dancing at the pool.
11:51 [music]
11:54 Come on, Gina!
11:56 Take that boot!
11:58 That's all right, they might want to get her!
12:01 Go ahead!
12:03 And yes, you can hear Judy anywhere in the bowling alley.
12:06 She's not afraid to yell all the way across
12:09 from one end to the other end for somebody.
12:11 You don't want nobody to know you had to take your booty!
12:14 Oh yeah, I dance when the right kind of music come on.
12:17 I'll go out and dance with y'all too, whether y'all know it or not.
12:21 I'll be all on the dance floor.
12:23 I might be all on the floor, but I'll be out there.
12:27 [music]
12:31 Y'all should try coming.
12:33 Y'all want to come down there?
12:35 [music]
12:48 Can you tell me what my average is, please?
12:50 68? Yes, okay!
12:52 I've had better games than I've had worse.
12:54 Hey, let me go, let me go!
12:57 That's how you do it, guy!
12:59 Oh, you got 65.
13:01 That's not bad.
13:03 Better than me, I got 45.
13:05 What excuse can I use?
13:06 I can see, and you can't.
13:08 What?
13:10 How did you vote?
13:12 I voted 55.
13:14 Six under my average.
13:16 Yeah.
13:18 [music]
13:28 GANG!
13:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]