MARINA

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A portrait of a 13yr old girl and internet sensation showing what visually impaired people are really capable of.

London based, Dutch filmmaker Kate Villevoye follows Marina, an internet sensation, showing her world as a blind 13yr old girl.

With 21, 000 subscribers to her Youtube channel, Marina Katarina Kovac has interchangeable prosthetic eyes and finds her way by hearing echoes. To her followers she conveys how her disability doesn't stop her living life how she wants to, instead she shows how a visually impaired girl is totally capable of leading a normal path through adolescence.

Villevoye << I discovered Marina's Youtube channel during a random late night search, when I was feeling curious about the online presence of visually impaired people and just wanted to learn more, really. After becoming totally fascinated by her Youtube account and how she wholeheartedly invites the viewer into her world, I decided to reach out to her and see if she felt like making something together.


I think that I gravitated towards Marina so naturally because I feel a strong connection still to that age, of 13, 14, when you go from being a child to a teenager, and everything starts to change. You begin to think about how you look and present yourself to the world, about who your friends are and why, and social media (or MSN Messenger for me at the time!) plays a crucial part in all of this. I felt like there was a lot we could explore on this subject from Marina's point of view.


I decided to shoot on 16mm film because I knew we were going to focus on her sense of touch amongst others, and felt that the texture of analogue film would capture this particularly well. >>

CREDITS