Beauty in spite of blindness

Like far too many parents, Édith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier were forced to contend with a terrifying medical diagnosis when a doctor found that retinitis pigmentosa–a disease that causes the retinas to slowly disintegrate–ran in their family. But, Lemay and Pelletier received the crushing news that signs of the irreversible disease were already present in three of their four young children. 

The Montreal couple could have easily wallowed in misery, mourning the sudden evaporation of life as usual. Instead, Lemay and Pelletier quickly realized they had a duty to show their children as much of the world as they could while they all could still see it. With the support of Pelletier’s employer, the family of six embarked on a year-long journey across the globe with stops in countries as varied as Ecuador, Indonesia, and Egypt.

Now, the family’s story is the subject of Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher’s documentary Blink, which, after a limited theatrical run, will premiere on the National Geographic Channel December 16th before making its way to Disney+ and Hulu the next day. Though the film doesn’t shy away from the iconic nature images one would expect from a NatGeo production, it’s also a deeply affecting story that is unafraid to show the spectrum of emotions that comes with family travel in the face of life-altering news. 

Stenson, Lemay, and Pelletier sat down with The Pamphleteer to talk about the pitfalls of disability stories, the process of parenting on camera, and modeling strength in the face of adversity–even in the most difficult moments. 

🪖 Holding It Down For Hegseth Both Senator Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn have thrown their weight behind Middle Tennessee’s Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. “What everybody needs to do is get behind President Trump’s nominee,” said Hagerty during a CNN interview on Wednesday. “We need to move this thing forward as quickly and expeditiously as we can because we need to be ready for President Trump to hit the ground running with the team he wants on day one.” On Monday, Blackburn described Hegseth as “an outstanding choice” on X: “I am confident he will bolster our military and make an excellent addition to the Trump administration.”

Despite rumors that Hegseth might get swapped with Florida Governor Ron Desantis for the position, both Trump and his Vice President, JD Vance, came to Hegseth’s defense on social media earlier this morning. “Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” posted Trump on Truth Social before iterating that Hegseth would make a “fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense Defense.” Vance followed suit on X: “For too long, the Pentagon has been led by people who lose wars. Pete Hegseth is a man who fought in those wars. We've got his back.”

🌳 Native Naming Session On Tuesday, Metro’s Parks and Recreation board unanimously voted to rename Cumberland Park. At the request of the Indigenous Peoples Coalition, the green located along the East Bank’s riverfront will now be referred to as Wasioto Park. According to WPLN, the term is the Shawnee name for Tennessee’s Cumberland River. 

During East Bank development deal discussions back in April, several speakers stepped forward in support of recognizing the Cumberland river bank as Indigenous ground. “For the record, I’m opposed to the East Bank deal because of the lack of provision for an indigenous park in the East Bank plans,” explained Albert Bender, chairman of the Native American Indian Coalition in Tennessee.

Following Bender’s testimony, Jennifer Wang, a member of Tennessee’s environmental council and director at New Energy Nexus, stepped up to the mic. Though Wang moved from California to Nashville four years ago, she offered her two cents on Imagine Nashville’s survey, which revealed that many of the respondents “feel like Nashville is more for newcomers, rather than for natives.” Her solution—as a newcomer—was to shine a light on the Indigenous natives, the “original stewards of the land.” At the time, Wang supported renaming the park and asked the council to incorporate indigenous “voices into decisions that are made about the land.” 

👨‍⚖️ Nash Playing Nice With State Lawmakers During this morning’s roundtable, the mayor gave the impression that he is attempting to establish a healthy working relationship with the state. When speaking of the possibility that state legislators may step in with public safety bills following Metro council’s failure to support MNPD technology upgrades, it seems O’Connell hopes to quell conflict between the city and the state by encouraging local “progress on some collaborative public safety elements.” 

“We would prefer that we generally be allowed to maintain existing authorities, whether it is public safety, whether it's things like regulatory environments for our destination economy, for things like party buses and so forth,” he explained. “What we've said to Darren [Jernigan, O’Connell’s Manager of State and Federal Legislative Affairs] is we want to maintain as much overall trust so that we can demonstrate to the state that we are governing effectively and efficiently and with an eye towards safety and services that doesn't invite a lot of preemptive activity.”

DEVELOPMENT

• Inside New York-based Turnbridge Equities' major 12South development (NBJ)
• March start eyed for west side condo building (Post)

✹ AT ANY COST

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association high school football championship games kicked off yesterday in Chattanooga. On display at Finley Stadium will be the state’s best teams and playmakers from the 2024 high school football season. Among all the storylines surrounding the matchups, one, in particular, stands out as quite possibly the most ridiculous ploy to win a state title I have ever seen in all my years of following high school football in the state.

Milan High School, located about 100 miles northeast of Memphis in Gibson County, is pretty much your quintessential small town Tennessee high school. With a population of about eight thousand, Milan (MY-lunn) is a place where everybody not only knows their neighbors, but have deep generational connections. Their parents and grandparents went to school together and just about everyone is blood related somewhere down the line. In a remote agricultural town like this, the football team is a crucial pillar of the community. H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights depicts a town like this very well. There’s a purity at the pre-collegiate level that the college and professional games lack.

Playing their first season in 1922 under head coach Ray Oliver, Milan is also one of the oldest teams in Tennessee. Their rivalry with nearby Peabody High School is one of longest running in the state. With four state championships, twenty-five district titles and over one hundred years of tradition, they are right up there with Maryville as one of the most storied and respected programs… But the school’s latest effort to remain competitive has the potential to undermine its storied legacy.

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎄 Home Alone In Concert with the Nashville Symphony @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $129, Info

🎸 Molly Martin @ The Basement, 9p, $19.27, Info

🎸 Kacey Musgraves @ Bridgestone Arena, 7:30p, $74+, Info

🩰 Nashville Ballet w/ The Nutcracker @ TN Performing Arts Center Andrew Jackson Hall, 7p, $82+, Info

🎸 The Mavericks @ Ryman Auditorium, 8p, $41.50+, Info

🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: December 7-13

The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming releases, check out our 2024 Film Guide.

Y2K (Dir. Kyle Mooney; Starring Rachel Zegler, Fred Durst [!!!]) The SNL alum returns to the director’s chair after the wildly underrated Brigsby Bear for a Gremlins-inspired horror comedy about teenagers battling sentient machines in an alternate universe where 1999 was indeed humanity’s final party. Now playing in theaters.

The Return (Dir. Umberto Pasolini; Starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche) This new riff on The Odyssey finds Fiennes as the mythic aging Trojan War hero trying to piece his life back together. Reviews have been strong despite it being dumped into the multiplex on an off week. Now playing in theaters.

Interstellar in IMAX (Dir. Christopher Nolan; Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway) All I want for Christmas is to see Matthew McConaughey ramble about corn for 45 minutes before time traveling through space on the biggest screen possible. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and Regal Opry Mills 20.

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.

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