In a world of body shape-altering apps and skin-blurring filters, it might be hard to remind ourselves that real beauty comes from inside. Blind Beauty, a moving latest film by director Gillian Zinser, focuses on young people living with sight impairment and the way they perceive beauty, identity, and body image.

Presented by Nowness, the sensory collage of interviews with children and young adults on the sight loss spectrum emphasises how our internal beliefs are infinitely more vital than the pictures we’re presented with. “To me, beauty means having the ability to express myself,” one in all the film’s blind or partially-sighted voices explains, with one other stating that it’s “the connections that we make with others”.

Commissioned by Art Beyond Sight and made in partnership with the Lavelle School for the Blind and The New York Institute of Specialized Education (NYISE), the film positions sight as something limiting – how, in a society obsessive about digital image, we’re always reaching for unattainable levels of perfection. “Even when I had people telling me I used to be essentially the most beautiful girl on this planet, I feel like if I could see myself, I wouldn’t think that,” suggests one young person.

The thought got here from Zinser’s fractured relationship with social media and the way damagingly image-based it might be today. “I’m fascinated by how our addiction to technology is distorting our perception of beauty and the way we learn to define and experience it,” says the director. “I need audiences to contemplate what beauty looks like when it is just not dictated by celebrities or Facetune, and as an alternative based on emotions, sound, scent, and touch.”

“As a sighted person, I’m not attempting to pretend I can represent the scholars’ understanding of beauty through visual language,” Zinser continues. “After digesting their perspectives and experiences, I sat with their voices and tried to sculpt an homage of sorts inspired by how they feel their way through this world.”

Watch Blind Beauty below.