[Applause]
[Music]
thank you so much so I recently got back
from a trip to the Philippines where I
was making a documentary about Joanne
Lili Oh on her husband for Haley oh and
their four kids the family lives under a
tin roof on top of a mesh together
wooden floor on a rice plantation in
exchange for renting the land where
heylia will work the fields for Haley
OHS job in the fields it’s a family’s
only source of income and they make four
to twelve dollars a day depending on the
harvest Joanne Lee’s greatest joy is
being a homemaker
she loves looking after her family
cooking for them washing their clothes
and making sure that her kids are
getting their homework done also she
helps for hey Leo in the fields when she
can two years ago this all changed
Joanne Lee’s vision began to deteriorate
images became blurred she became
sensitive to light she was going blind
the world as that family knew it began
to drastically change two of her kids
had to stop going to school to help the
family
Joanne Lee can no longer support herself
and her lied on bare heylia’s assistance
on a regular basis amber hey Leo adopted
the motherly roles of Joanne Lee and
began to cook and clean things only got
worse though Joanne Lee eventually
became completely blind and her favorite
things in life were now taken from her
now her hey Leo’s accompanied by his
boys and the rice fields and Joanne Lee
is left at home alone we watched as she
used her cane to navigate the world
around her she struggled to wash their
own clothes to use a bathroom to take a
shower
her condition impacted her life not only
physically but also spiritually once
when we were alone Joanne Lee told us
that she hates herself so much so when
she’s by herself she cries I tried to
put myself in Joanne Lee shoes and
envision myself back in the States
and at least living in America I would
have support that disabled communities
have access
but Joanne Lee has nothing and as a
blind woman and a developing country
with minimal support she was forced to
experience a tiny bit of the world
she used to inhabit the thought alone
was hard to wrap my mind around while
looking at these types of living
conditions and I began to realize that
her condition not only shifted her
identity as a mother but it also shifted
verhaalen’s identity her condition did
not just take her but it also took her
hallyu as well as he had to adopt the
roles as a mother in addition to his as
a father to their four sons where Haley
Oh does not see this as a burden though
he expressed to us that his love for
Joanne Lee is endless and his family is
the most important thing to him and that
to me is so special such a universal
truth that we all do what we can for the
people we love
mahalia and Joanne Lee described the day
that jointly insisted that they go to a
clinic to get her eyes checked on and
hopefully figure out what might be wrong
and knowing that they cannot afford this
for hilio agreed what is amazing is that
when they arrived at that clinic a nurse
informed them of what jointly had was
treatable it was cataracts and better
yet there was a medical mission that was
taking place there were doctors from
Manila the capital of the Philippines
and doctors from the United States were
coming to offer their services for free
they would provide Joanne Lee with a
free ten minute surgery and in 24 hours
she would be able to see again the
miracle facing this family was almost
biblical now in the States you’ll find
that cataracts just come with old age
and they are generally treated our early
signs but in the developing world due to
malnutrition and sun exposure the risk
of developing early cataracts is greater
anywhere from babies to teenagers to
adults like Joanne Lee who is 46 years
old can be affected
there are approximately 36 million
people worldwide that suffer from
unnecessary blindness and more than half
of the
due to cataracts which is treatable and
I just want us to look at some stats to
put things into perspective just how
inhibiting cataracts are to people in
the developing world so nine out of the
ten of the world’s blind live in
developing countries 90% of people
impacted from cataracts can no longer
work fifty percent of the blind report a
loss of social standing and
decision-making authority and eighty
percent of all women note a loss of
authority within their families and 33
percent of people have a decrease in
life expectancy now hundreds of others
were attending this clinic in the same
condition as Joann Lee all of them were
blind afraid and some had just accepted
their fate of what they called living in
the dark place this is Antonio a blind
man who’d like Joann leah has lived
without his vision for two years I was
being cared for by his niece Omar was in
an accident where he was electrocuted
and lost his vision dr. Levenson would
be one of the ophthalmologists assisting
with these operations
he’s a Jacksonville bass doctor who has
dedicated his life to giving back and
giving others a gifted sight he was one
of five ophthalmologists I came over to
offer their support and skills for the
clinic dr. Malibu is an ophthalmologist
based in Manila he also attended the
clinic and when I asked him how many
cataract surgeries do you think he’s
done he paused and he looked at me and
he said fifty thousand is modest in the
past 13 years here’s a photo of two
foreigners being hit on by a woman who
just got her bandages taken off she
immediately grabbed our attention and
started to tell us how handsome we were
as we had the woman and the back
translate for us she invited Phil our
producer here and I back to her home
where she offered to cook us rice she
said we could stay a while she said she
would take care of us
it’s a very tempting offer
now what I want to do is I want to show
you some raw footage that we got back
keep in mind none of this is edited
colored or mixed and as we’re watching
I watched as geo analyst say goodbye to
ver hey Leo I made our way back to the
it was quiet as she patiently sat there
and waited for the doctors to bring her
back
they put a numbing agent in both of
joining these eyes and while her eyes
would be numb she was awake and
conscious during the whole operation and
procedure just a disclaimer there is
footage of the actual surgery in here so
if you do get queasy I would just
recommend looking away for this part and
it’s very brief and what the doctors
will use is a fish hook like scalpel and
they try to scoop the hard cataract out
of her eye and then they’ll put in the
artificial lens and she will be able to
see again so in ten minutes they
completed the surgery guided Joanne Lee
back to the waiting room where she was
greeted by her hey Lia and bro hey Lia
was relieved optimistic and hopeful that
and in 24 hours
doctors Malaba and Levinson met Joanne
Lee her hey leo her kids and her
sister-in-law and they began to take off
and she hesitated at first to open her
eyes because she was scared of the light
and also her eyes are so sensitive
mahalia kept asking her can you see me
can you see me she finally nodded she
could see now you see me you could see
Joanne Lee and her family’s two-year
Lemmon sent him Alibi smiled and
congratulated the family and went on
their way and proceeded to take off the
bandages of hundreds of other patients
now later on veut hey Leo came back and
looked at them in awe and was so
endlessly grateful for what they had
done in just a few minutes they had
forever altered this family’s future
they just changed their life and what
was equally significant is that each of
the doctors involved expressed the same
perspective to me that their patients
were their heroes and this was so
extremely powerful and profound it
affirmed my passion for filming these
life-changing events and telling stories
of change to capture this type of raw
emotion to capture someone’s journey and
this capacity all I can hope for is to
bring this type of feeling to an
audience so maybe when you walk away you
can look at the world a little
differently and all in all five surgeons
performed over 300 cataract surgeries in
just 14 days now the way that cataract
surgeries are conducted in the States is
extremely expensive and the machines are
cumbersome and ultimately it’s
unrealistic to perform the Western
version of cataract surgeries in the
developing world so what these doctors
did was utilize a manual surgical
technique was pioneered by this man dr.
Sandhu cruet he was known as the god of
sight Andrew we came from this village
he was born to rural illiterate parents
and the remote mountainous
village in Northeast Nepal and his
village was a tiny cluster of 200 people
located 11,000 feet above sea level and
one of the most remote regions of Nepal
with no electricity no school no health
facility our modern means of
communication and his home lies
blanketed under snow for six and nine
months out of the year and it’s about a
five days walk to the nearest city so
this man right here left his home and
vented a surgical technique mastered it
used it to help reverse the rate of
blindness in his home country of Nepal
and then proceeded to upload a video of
the surgical technique to YouTube where
doctors around the world saw it and
began to learn it doctors from India
Ethiopia doctors from the United States
like dr. Levenson all of them use it to
help their communities to help people
like Joanne Lee now I believe that
unlikely heroes are all around us you
see them everywhere they can come from
all walks of life and they hail from all
professions this is a photo of my high
school film teacher mr. Maddox who is
one of my heroes and shortly after this
photo was taken
mr. Maddox passed away from cancer and
you could ask any student who was
serious about film and they would tell
you about how he impacted their life and
pushed them to pursue their dreams mr.
Maddox helped me affirm my passion for
film and my drive so these unlikely
heroes can come in all colors from any
gender and from any person and from all
places heroes like Barack Obama Malala
Rosa Parks mr. Rogers and many more were
able to address and help tackle some of
our toughest problems touching the lives
of individuals and communities around
the world
and these individuals all started from
somewhere and at some point they were
unlikely not one of them imagine for a
second that they might make a difference
in the world around them and I believe
that individuals who are
underrepresented who are on the fringes
of society who are unlikely will have
the strongest point of view and they
will have the most to say they can be
the ones that push society forward and I
think it is our responsibility to
support them my eyes first opened to
this notion of a year ago when we
created a documentary series that aired
on the Olympic channel Eurosport and
snapchat called far from home and it
followed six unlikely Winter athletes
and their quest to the 2018 Winter
Olympic Games we traveled to 12
countries and made 237 minutes of
content and I had the privilege and a
very sacred privilege of telling the
stories of three of the six athletes I
worked with Julianne Yi you just saw a
figure skater from Malaysia Curie
Russell and Jasmine Finn later of the
Jamaican bobsleigh team and shivakashi
Vaughn an Indian leisure who was born in
the Himalayas Julianne Yi grew up in a
tropical country training and shopping
malls he would teach himself by watching
YouTube videos and he became Alicia’s
first ever Winter Olympian Jasmine Finn
later and career Russell an unlikely duo
who became Jamaica’s first Olympic
female bobsleigh team did this without
any winter sports facility and Jasmine
who competed for Team USA in the Sochi
games decided to make the switch back to
Jamaica where her father was from and
she teamed up with curry Russell and
native to Jamaica and attracts superstar
who had never stepped foot in a
and Shiva Keshav on who was at the time
going for his six Winter Olympic Games
his six games athletes hope to make it
2-1 and he did this without any help
from the government and without any
Winter Olympic training facility and for
us the journey itself was the goal each
of these stories defied all odds and
preconceived notions of who they are and
what they look like are where they hail
from it was an opportunity to use our
tools as filmmakers and give them some
platform to elevate their mission and to
hopefully document and show other people
people who look like them people who
come from their home country or a
country similar that they too can
achieve that or whatever they want there
are no boundaries and it was exciting
he’s after the documentaries were all
said and done and the games were
complete some of the athletes went out
to the International Olympic Committee
headquarters where they got together
with other high-level executives and
they screened their films there they
talked about their experience they
shared the story of their journey and
together with the International Olympic
Committee heads they discuss ways to
bring winter sports infrastructure back
to their home country and for US
filmmakers this was such a proud moment
because we could see our film
transcending the screen and actually
helping someone and hopefully help him
anymore and that is why for me as a
filmmaker I’ve made it my life mission
to try to utilize the tools that I have
to find these types of stories to find
these individuals and help give them the
confidence or support that they need to
spread their message I’m here to just
pass them the mic and you know there are
many people I’ve met along the way that
I profoundly impacted my life and I
considered them all unlikely heroes
doctors Mallaby and Levinson for Haley
and Joanne Lee
my film teacher mr. Maddox Julianne
jasmine
Korean Shiva the people I’ve worked with
along the way these encounters and the
opportunity to be vulnerable with people
is what brings me hope and happiness and
the ability to see that we have more in
common than we think we do
and I believe that ideas I could solve
our toughest problems don’t come from
just one group of people they come from
all walks of life and oftentimes people
who can help solve some of the world’s
most pressing problems need support they
need a platform and they need the
resources and tool to execute and they
need help sharing ideas to the world so
whether you meet someone from a small
rural town of 200 or you meet someone
who looks different than you or someone
who hails from a different country give
them a chance whether you are a brand
and an organization or just an
individual stop listen to their story be
an ally and support them you do not need
to be a filmmaker or to travel to have
these types of experiences all you have
to do is look in your backyard and
ultimately it is up to you on how you
engage with people but I promise if you
do you will be pleasantly surprised and
you never know who you might be giving
that confidence to and what they might
do with it and I can guarantee you that
you’ll learn a little bit about yourself
along the way thank you
[Applause] [Music]
[Music]
thank you so much so I recently got back
from a trip to the Philippines where I
was making a documentary about Joanne
Lili Oh on her husband for Haley oh and
their four kids the family lives under a
tin roof on top of a mesh together
wooden floor on a rice plantation in
exchange for renting the land where
heylia will work the fields for Haley
OHS job in the fields it’s a family’s
only source of income and they make four
to twelve dollars a day depending on the
harvest Joanne Lee’s greatest joy is
being a homemaker
she loves looking after her family
cooking for them washing their clothes
and making sure that her kids are
getting their homework done also she
helps for hey Leo in the fields when she
can two years ago this all changed
Joanne Lee’s vision began to deteriorate
images became blurred she became
sensitive to light she was going blind
the world as that family knew it began
to drastically change two of her kids
had to stop going to school to help the
family
Joanne Lee can no longer support herself
and her lied on bare heylia’s assistance
on a regular basis amber hey Leo adopted
the motherly roles of Joanne Lee and
began to cook and clean things only got
worse though Joanne Lee eventually
became completely blind and her favorite
things in life were now taken from her
now her hey Leo’s accompanied by his
boys and the rice fields and Joanne Lee
is left at home alone we watched as she
used her cane to navigate the world
around her she struggled to wash their
own clothes to use a bathroom to take a
shower
her condition impacted her life not only
physically but also spiritually once
when we were alone Joanne Lee told us
that she hates herself so much so when
she’s by herself she cries I tried to
put myself in Joanne Lee shoes and
envision myself back in the States
and at least living in America I would
have support that disabled communities
have access
but Joanne Lee has nothing and as a
blind woman and a developing country
with minimal support she was forced to
experience a tiny bit of the world
she used to inhabit the thought alone
was hard to wrap my mind around while
looking at these types of living
conditions and I began to realize that
her condition not only shifted her
identity as a mother but it also shifted
verhaalen’s identity her condition did
not just take her but it also took her
hallyu as well as he had to adopt the
roles as a mother in addition to his as
a father to their four sons where Haley
Oh does not see this as a burden though
he expressed to us that his love for
Joanne Lee is endless and his family is
the most important thing to him and that
to me is so special such a universal
truth that we all do what we can for the
people we love
mahalia and Joanne Lee described the day
that jointly insisted that they go to a
clinic to get her eyes checked on and
hopefully figure out what might be wrong
and knowing that they cannot afford this
for hilio agreed what is amazing is that
when they arrived at that clinic a nurse
informed them of what jointly had was
treatable it was cataracts and better
yet there was a medical mission that was
taking place there were doctors from
Manila the capital of the Philippines
and doctors from the United States were
coming to offer their services for free
they would provide Joanne Lee with a
free ten minute surgery and in 24 hours
she would be able to see again the
miracle facing this family was almost
biblical now in the States you’ll find
that cataracts just come with old age
and they are generally treated our early
signs but in the developing world due to
malnutrition and sun exposure the risk
of developing early cataracts is greater
anywhere from babies to teenagers to
adults like Joanne Lee who is 46 years
old can be affected
there are approximately 36 million
people worldwide that suffer from
unnecessary blindness and more than half
of the
due to cataracts which is treatable and
I just want us to look at some stats to
put things into perspective just how
inhibiting cataracts are to people in
the developing world so nine out of the
ten of the world’s blind live in
developing countries 90% of people
impacted from cataracts can no longer
work fifty percent of the blind report a
loss of social standing and
decision-making authority and eighty
percent of all women note a loss of
authority within their families and 33
percent of people have a decrease in
life expectancy now hundreds of others
were attending this clinic in the same
condition as Joann Lee all of them were
blind afraid and some had just accepted
their fate of what they called living in
the dark place this is Antonio a blind
man who’d like Joann leah has lived
without his vision for two years I was
being cared for by his niece Omar was in
an accident where he was electrocuted
and lost his vision dr. Levenson would
be one of the ophthalmologists assisting
with these operations
he’s a Jacksonville bass doctor who has
dedicated his life to giving back and
giving others a gifted sight he was one
of five ophthalmologists I came over to
offer their support and skills for the
clinic dr. Malibu is an ophthalmologist
based in Manila he also attended the
clinic and when I asked him how many
cataract surgeries do you think he’s
done he paused and he looked at me and
he said fifty thousand is modest in the
past 13 years here’s a photo of two
foreigners being hit on by a woman who
just got her bandages taken off she
immediately grabbed our attention and
started to tell us how handsome we were
as we had the woman and the back
translate for us she invited Phil our
producer here and I back to her home
where she offered to cook us rice she
said we could stay a while she said she
would take care of us
it’s a very tempting offer
now what I want to do is I want to show
you some raw footage that we got back
keep in mind none of this is edited
colored or mixed and as we’re watching
I watched as geo analyst say goodbye to
ver hey Leo I made our way back to the
it was quiet as she patiently sat there
and waited for the doctors to bring her
back
they put a numbing agent in both of
joining these eyes and while her eyes
would be numb she was awake and
conscious during the whole operation and
procedure just a disclaimer there is
footage of the actual surgery in here so
if you do get queasy I would just
recommend looking away for this part and
it’s very brief and what the doctors
will use is a fish hook like scalpel and
they try to scoop the hard cataract out
of her eye and then they’ll put in the
artificial lens and she will be able to
see again so in ten minutes they
completed the surgery guided Joanne Lee
back to the waiting room where she was
greeted by her hey Lia and bro hey Lia
was relieved optimistic and hopeful that
and in 24 hours
doctors Malaba and Levinson met Joanne
Lee her hey leo her kids and her
sister-in-law and they began to take off
and she hesitated at first to open her
eyes because she was scared of the light
and also her eyes are so sensitive
mahalia kept asking her can you see me
can you see me she finally nodded she
could see now you see me you could see
Joanne Lee and her family’s two-year
Lemmon sent him Alibi smiled and
congratulated the family and went on
their way and proceeded to take off the
bandages of hundreds of other patients
now later on veut hey Leo came back and
looked at them in awe and was so
endlessly grateful for what they had
done in just a few minutes they had
forever altered this family’s future
they just changed their life and what
was equally significant is that each of
the doctors involved expressed the same
perspective to me that their patients
were their heroes and this was so
extremely powerful and profound it
affirmed my passion for filming these
life-changing events and telling stories
of change to capture this type of raw
emotion to capture someone’s journey and
this capacity all I can hope for is to
bring this type of feeling to an
audience so maybe when you walk away you
can look at the world a little
differently and all in all five surgeons
performed over 300 cataract surgeries in
just 14 days now the way that cataract
surgeries are conducted in the States is
extremely expensive and the machines are
cumbersome and ultimately it’s
unrealistic to perform the Western
version of cataract surgeries in the
developing world so what these doctors
did was utilize a manual surgical
technique was pioneered by this man dr.
Sandhu cruet he was known as the god of
sight Andrew we came from this village
he was born to rural illiterate parents
and the remote mountainous
village in Northeast Nepal and his
village was a tiny cluster of 200 people
located 11,000 feet above sea level and
one of the most remote regions of Nepal
with no electricity no school no health
facility our modern means of
communication and his home lies
blanketed under snow for six and nine
months out of the year and it’s about a
five days walk to the nearest city so
this man right here left his home and
vented a surgical technique mastered it
used it to help reverse the rate of
blindness in his home country of Nepal
and then proceeded to upload a video of
the surgical technique to YouTube where
doctors around the world saw it and
began to learn it doctors from India
Ethiopia doctors from the United States
like dr. Levenson all of them use it to
help their communities to help people
like Joanne Lee now I believe that
unlikely heroes are all around us you
see them everywhere they can come from
all walks of life and they hail from all
professions this is a photo of my high
school film teacher mr. Maddox who is
one of my heroes and shortly after this
photo was taken
mr. Maddox passed away from cancer and
you could ask any student who was
serious about film and they would tell
you about how he impacted their life and
pushed them to pursue their dreams mr.
Maddox helped me affirm my passion for
film and my drive so these unlikely
heroes can come in all colors from any
gender and from any person and from all
places heroes like Barack Obama Malala
Rosa Parks mr. Rogers and many more were
able to address and help tackle some of
our toughest problems touching the lives
of individuals and communities around
the world
and these individuals all started from
somewhere and at some point they were
unlikely not one of them imagine for a
second that they might make a difference
in the world around them and I believe
that individuals who are
underrepresented who are on the fringes
of society who are unlikely will have
the strongest point of view and they
will have the most to say they can be
the ones that push society forward and I
think it is our responsibility to
support them my eyes first opened to
this notion of a year ago when we
created a documentary series that aired
on the Olympic channel Eurosport and
snapchat called far from home and it
followed six unlikely Winter athletes
and their quest to the 2018 Winter
Olympic Games we traveled to 12
countries and made 237 minutes of
content and I had the privilege and a
very sacred privilege of telling the
stories of three of the six athletes I
worked with Julianne Yi you just saw a
figure skater from Malaysia Curie
Russell and Jasmine Finn later of the
Jamaican bobsleigh team and shivakashi
Vaughn an Indian leisure who was born in
the Himalayas Julianne Yi grew up in a
tropical country training and shopping
malls he would teach himself by watching
YouTube videos and he became Alicia’s
first ever Winter Olympian Jasmine Finn
later and career Russell an unlikely duo
who became Jamaica’s first Olympic
female bobsleigh team did this without
any winter sports facility and Jasmine
who competed for Team USA in the Sochi
games decided to make the switch back to
Jamaica where her father was from and
she teamed up with curry Russell and
native to Jamaica and attracts superstar
who had never stepped foot in a
and Shiva Keshav on who was at the time
going for his six Winter Olympic Games
his six games athletes hope to make it
2-1 and he did this without any help
from the government and without any
Winter Olympic training facility and for
us the journey itself was the goal each
of these stories defied all odds and
preconceived notions of who they are and
what they look like are where they hail
from it was an opportunity to use our
tools as filmmakers and give them some
platform to elevate their mission and to
hopefully document and show other people
people who look like them people who
come from their home country or a
country similar that they too can
achieve that or whatever they want there
are no boundaries and it was exciting
he’s after the documentaries were all
said and done and the games were
complete some of the athletes went out
to the International Olympic Committee
headquarters where they got together
with other high-level executives and
they screened their films there they
talked about their experience they
shared the story of their journey and
together with the International Olympic
Committee heads they discuss ways to
bring winter sports infrastructure back
to their home country and for US
filmmakers this was such a proud moment
because we could see our film
transcending the screen and actually
helping someone and hopefully help him
anymore and that is why for me as a
filmmaker I’ve made it my life mission
to try to utilize the tools that I have
to find these types of stories to find
these individuals and help give them the
confidence or support that they need to
spread their message I’m here to just
pass them the mic and you know there are
many people I’ve met along the way that
I profoundly impacted my life and I
considered them all unlikely heroes
doctors Mallaby and Levinson for Haley
and Joanne Lee
my film teacher mr. Maddox Julianne
jasmine
Korean Shiva the people I’ve worked with
along the way these encounters and the
opportunity to be vulnerable with people
is what brings me hope and happiness and
the ability to see that we have more in
common than we think we do
and I believe that ideas I could solve
our toughest problems don’t come from
just one group of people they come from
all walks of life and oftentimes people
who can help solve some of the world’s
most pressing problems need support they
need a platform and they need the
resources and tool to execute and they
need help sharing ideas to the world so
whether you meet someone from a small
rural town of 200 or you meet someone
who looks different than you or someone
who hails from a different country give
them a chance whether you are a brand
and an organization or just an
individual stop listen to their story be
an ally and support them you do not need
to be a filmmaker or to travel to have
these types of experiences all you have
to do is look in your backyard and
ultimately it is up to you on how you
engage with people but I promise if you
do you will be pleasantly surprised and
you never know who you might be giving
that confidence to and what they might
do with it and I can guarantee you that
you’ll learn a little bit about yourself
along the way thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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