Oklahoma Blind Fencer Hits Mark With Documentary

When Catherine Bolton began to lose her sight, she never dreamed she would one day use her condition to help others.

Bolton moved to Oklahoma just recently, but now is working with a local film maker to promote the sport through "Touche' The Movie."

George Adams has been making documentaries for the past eleven years. He also helps teach classes at Oklahoma Sport Fencing, where classes for blind and low vision students are offered.

"The tactile information you can gain from a blade is very similar to the tactile information you can gain from a cane," said Carolyn Gresham-Fiegel.

Fiegel and her husband Bob own Oklahoma Sport Fencing, where the blind and low vision fencing classes are offered five times a year.

Adams had been talking with Cesar Morales, an instructor in Boston who teaches fencing classes to visually impaired students. Adams had entertained the idea of filming a tournament there this summer.

"Turns out one of the people that he used to teach lives here in Oklahoma," said Adams. "She and I literally bumped into each other one afternoon at the post office."

"He's like 'I noticed the cane, have you ever fenced before?'" said Bolton. "I was like 'Yeah, but that's a really odd question.'"

Bolton agreed to help Adams with the documentary, and they've since shot about 30 hours of footage. Oklahoma Sport Fencing has been invited to Bolton this June for a visually impaired fencing tournament, and Adams will be there as well. He hopes to wrap up filming for "Touche'" shortly after and have the documentary ready for release this fall.

"When you think fencing, you don't correlate it with blind people," said Bolton. "I just wanna show that hey, it can be done."