A documentary called Invisible Imagination, produced by Sarah Taylor and Anna Cooley, makes its world premiere Sept. 29 at the Calgary International Film Festival. The 70-minute piece focuses on aphantasia—the inability to form mental images. It’s something Taylor has lived with her whole life but only recently discovered. “Maybe six years ago, during COVID, I was scrolling the internet and I came across this post that said, ‘Imagine a red star. What do you see in your mind’s eye?’” she said. “And they showed these six boxes. It started with a black box and it progressively got brighter to bright red.” At the time, Taylor was driving with her husband and told her husband about the post, not believing anyone could actually picture a star in their mind because she’s never been able to see an image in her mind. “I showed him the graphic and he’s like, ‘Oh, I see No. 6,’ and I was like, ‘What?’” she said. “I had no idea that this was a thing and in the post it said (seeing the black box) is known as ‘mind’s eye blindness,’ so I was like, ‘OK, apparently I have mind’s eye blindness. I don’t know what this means.’” Taylor began researching aphantasia. She was keen to share what she learned with others through a documentary and turned to Cooley to help with the project. “That blew my mind because to me it seems like being an award-winning editor should be impossible if you don’t visualize,” Cooley said. “But she is and so clearly, there’s something about her brain that I needed to understand immediately and so we set out together to understand how our brains work.” It turns out Cooley is the complete opposite of Taylor with something called hyperphantasia, which she learned after taking a short test on the Aphantasia Network website (https://aphantasia.com/). The two were hooked and dove into producing their documentary. “The way my brain works and honestly, part of my identity as an artist in general, is that I see these things in my mind,” Cooley said. “It never occurred to me that people live with a completely different experience than I have.” The two say their goal for the project is to raise awareness that everyone’s brain operates differently. Aphantasia impacts just over three per cent of the population. The two are proud of their film. “I am over the moon,” Taylor said. “This whole thing is a ‘pinch me’ moment and being sold out for our world premiere, getting to just be confident and sharing that this is a difference that I live with and I can still be a fantastic filmmaker and it’s not going to hold me back in any way.” Cooley says she and Taylor will likely continue to work together, diving into more about how the brain works. “There’s so much more to explore,” she said. “We’re looking into a podcast (and) we’re also looking at exploring hyperphantasia in more detail, so I think Sarah and I are definitely not done working together.” You can learn more about Invisible Imagination at:
