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Blind Young Things, the third film in the new season of Cutting Edge, is a thought-provoking and heart-warming, observational documentary that follows Daniel, Selina and Steve, three blind or partially sighted students all in their teens at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford.
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The film follows the students over a three-month period as they begin a journey towards greater independence. Blind Young Things explores how they adapt to the college way-of-life, learning invaluable lessons, often the hard way, about improving their Braille, using a cane, cooking for themselves and the important issues that affect all teenagers – sex, love, partying and 'what am I going to do with my life after I graduate'.
British-Jamaican, 19 year-old Daniel Angus, is navigating freedom, beer, independent cheese sandwich making and above all girlfriends. Daniel is in his first year at the college and relishing his new found freedom: 'I'm in heaven right now, I mean, some of the things I'm doing… this is a reflection of how confident I've become, because some of the things I'm doing, you know, I wouldn't have dreamed of doing them a year ago, lets say.'
Eighteen-year-old Selina Litt has been losing her sight since she was ten and no amount of friends can distract her from the fear of total blindness and an operation that might not save her sight. The pretty teenager is very fashion conscious and like most people her age takes pride in her appearance. 'I used to be able to see like where my eyes and mouth were; just generally my face and where my hair falls and… I could tell if I was like smiling or whatever. Not lots of detail but enough to see if I look alright.'
Meanwhile 18 year-old Steve Markham from Rotherham, is blind, troubled and in trouble. Behaving badly and skiving lectures, he's hanging on by the skin of his teeth. But Steve has talent and his ad hoc songs about his hopes and fears form the spine of the film and despite being suspended there's hope for one of the College's most challenging students. 'I've been thinking about what's been making me the way I've been behaving at college and stuff like that. Its involved loads of things really, my up bringing, what I think about promises that have been made to me that haven't been kept, everything really… I know for a fact now that I need to deal with it and I don't wanna do it on my own because I won't be able to.'
