I’m finally getting around to Dream Touch Believe, with hesitancy, because while I did like the documentary, it also was my least favorite. I’ve tried marinating on why. Structurally, it is a sound, heartfelt work. A daughter is directing a film following her father’s life. Michael Araagelo, a fine art creator, who hasn’t let blindness or missing limbs lost in Vietnam stop him from creating art. I’m blind, so this should hit me hard, which at times, i related. he talks about early on, how people would try to show him things, and he kept thinking how unnecessary since he no longer had sight. I get that all the time. People still try to show me things today, like they forget I’m blind.

And the conversation around whether or not he would ever find love, well, spoiler alert on that one. The film is directed by his daughter, so we know how that story was bound to end. It was still sweet. But even though I’m in the arts, consider myself an artist, I’ve never been a fine arts person. Painting, sculpting, installations, all of that really isn’t my thing. Sometimes documentaries peak my interest in worlds I’m unfamiliar with, but that didn’t really happen here. I remained disconnected, believing I should be more involved.

And then came the score. Especially toward the end, it is relentless. What a terrible score. This is definitely a film that deserves a fresh rating, but the score was so overpowering, overly inspirational in tone, I couldn’t stand it. The last time I despised a score was Spike Lee’s Highest To Lowest, which had a score that he swears was written by a human, and he chose that score. Lee has better taste in music than that, and it would be nice company to be in as a director, to be grouped in with Spike Lee.

I’m endorsing this not because I loved it, but because I think many will, and I liked it enough. I wanted more. Some of the Reel abilities features were incredible. This one, which has played well at other festivals, and came equipped with a decent audio description track from Audio Eyes, was just OK. I don’t know if I hold blindness docs to a different standard, or if it had a lot to do with the kind of art he creates, or if the score just annoyed me that much, but this is the lowest score of any film from the festival. Everything I saw deserved a fresh score, but something also had to be at the bottom.

Dream Touch Believe should hit you emotionally, and guide you on one mans journey to represent himself through his disability, but for me it was just fine. Not great, but I struggle to see an audience disliking this.

Fresh: 6.5/10