A documentary by Lucy Walker. In English and Tibetan with English subtitles. Unrated. Plays Friday, July 18, Monday to Wednesday, July 21 to 23, and Friday to Wednesday, July 25 to 30, at the Vancity Theatre

At first glance, Blindsight seems a pretty straightforward documentary in the inspirational mode. But when a team of American climbers comes to Tibet to help a group of blind teenagers tackle Mount Everest, it becomes a study in unexamined culture clash.

The Tibetan boys and girls are assembled thanks to Sabriye Tenberken, a gutsy young German woman who, although blind herself, travelled widely before setting up a school for the sightless. Any patronizing attitudes from westerners pale before the outlook of other Tibetans, who view blindness as karmic payback for something or other that entitles them to spit at and curse the handicapped on the otherwise quiet streets of Lhasa.

Demonized and often shut out by their own families, teens like introspective Tenzin, sunny Kyila, and troubled Tashi obviously blossomed in the school environment. They are even more cheered by the prospect of climbing the Himalayas with Climbing Blind, an American group led by Erik Weihenmayer, the first sightless man to conquer Everest.

Weihenmayer has the disposition of a motivational speaker; he talks like a marine who wants you to think your country would really enjoy being invaded. This blinkered, gung-ho mood infects his whole team, as they keep telling the kids to smile and like it while clearly suffering in the thin air and rocky paths found closer to Everest. Tenberken and her Dutch partner, Paul Kronenberg, remain moral compasses here, without wanting to dampen youthful enthusiasms in the process.

The film is gorgeously and unobtrusively shot by Londoner Lucy Walker and crew. A side trip to China proper, to find Tashi’s non-Tibetan parents, is confusingly dropped in, however.