AllMovie

In this documentary profile of a woman living with a disability, director David Sutherland abandons the usual inspirational, overcoming-adversity plot line in favor of a tough, honest portrayal of a thoroughly modern woman. Diane Starin, 34, has been blind since she was 18 months old. Interviews and dramatized scenes tell the story of how she learned to cope with her impairment and gain independence. She now works as a cowgirl in northern California and teaches skills classes to blind children on the side. Over the course of the film, however, it becomes clear that any obstacles and frustrations she faces probably have as much to do with being a strong, outspoken single woman as they do with being blind -- the tensions between Starin and her emotionally distant family seem all too familiar. Starin's difficult relationship with Herb Martin, her longtime lover and friend who is dying of cancer, also figures prominently in the narrative; at its core, the film is really a cowboy love story...