Reviews

Rendered deaf and blind from illness at the age of nineteen months, Helen Keller is known to most as the inspiring figure played by Patty Duke in the 1962 film The Miracle Worker, who would later become a writer, idealist, and social activist who changed the definition of what it meant to be disabled. Filmmaker Penny Price’s documentary Shining Soul covers the familiar territory of how Annie Sullivan was brought to teach Keller and the two were “joined by their flying fingers,” becoming lifelong companions. Less well-known is the fact that while she was a young adult, Keller discovered and was deeply moved by the writings of religious philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg, particularly his vision of a loving God and insistence on living a life of usefulness and sharing with others in order to achieve personal fulfillment.

The program illustrates how Keller’s spirituality enabled her to overcome the inevitable grief and disappointments encountered in her life, noting her surprising visual imagination, profound love of language, and ability to experience the presence of God in all things. Since this is sponsored by the Swedenborg Foundation, the program features extensive coverage of Keller’s religious views; however, it’s also enriched by rare old photos and film clips of Keller and Sullivan, and testimony from scholars (including writer Jean Houston) and disabled interviewees (including Carl Augosto, the first blind man to climb Mt. Everest) who cite Keller as a shining example of a woman who embraced her abilities over her disabilities, enabling her to appreciate “life in all its moments.” Recommended. Three stars.