Utah members of the National Federation of the Blind are decrying the new film "Blindness" as not only misinformed, but as a message that could undo several hundred years of progress within the blind community.

"You'll have people attending this that will think they're learning something about blindness," said Dr. Norman Gardner, Orem resident and treasurer of the federation's Utah affiliate. "Of course they're not. This will do incredible damage to blind people and further stoke the false stereotypes."

Early reviewers say the film depicts a group of people with sudden-onset blindness. Fearing it could be contagious, authorities lock them away in an abandoned mental hospital. The scene degenerates into chaos, with characters struggling to cope with their condition, losing basic functionality, relieving themselves in hallways and, in at least one case, trading sex for food.

"They're pooping all over the place and urinating all over the place, and so there's incredible filth," Gardner said. "It's the most despicable depiction of blindness."

So Gardner and others took their response to the local theater Friday night as part of a national effort. In the hour leading up to the film's 6:50 showtime, blind advocates marched on the sidewalk outside the Provo Towne Centre theater, touting signs and passing handouts to moviegoers. They were joined by others at more than 75 theaters across the country, including another group in Utah at the Century 16 in Salt Lake.

"Our objective is to try to share true information with the public," Gardner said. "Differences of opinion are a right of all humans, of course. This is not simply a difference of opinion. This is a lie."

"Blindness" is based on a 1995 novel by Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago. According to The Associated Press, Saramago told the Portuguese radio station TSF he viewed the demonstrations as "a display of meanness based on nothing at all." He described the story as an allegory of "a blindness of rationality," the AP reported.

But the film's implications don't stop there, said Cheralyn Creer, first vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah. Viewers may instead come away with a negative impression of blind people's abilities or behavior, she said.

"It's a worry that parents of blind children may think any of those things are a possibility for their children," she said. "It's scary to think that teachers or employers could get a negative impression of a blind person."

With the blind facing a 70 percent unemployment rate, according to the latest estimates, that's a very real problem, Gardner said.

"Blind people are not that way," said Garner, who is blind and teaches corporate finance at Utah Valley University. "Blind people are regular individuals. We can be heads of families, we have regular jobs, we're wage earning, we're tax-paying citizens of society. This film is full of depictions of debauchery and the lowest possible place that humans can sink to."

The federation is calling for Miramax, the film's distributor, to pull it from theaters. The company refuted any wrongdoing in a statement.

"We are saddened to learn that the National Federation of the Blind plans to protest the film 'Blindness,'" it said. "Miramax Films and filmmaker Fernando Meirelles have worked diligently to preserve the intent and resonance of the acclaimed book by Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago, that is a courageous parable about the triumph of the human spirit when civilization breaks down."

More on the federation's position is available at www.nfbutah.org.

• Ace Stryker can be reached at 344-2556 or astryker@heraldextra.com.