At the age of 14, Blake Hyland had an accident which would change his life forever. An active boy, Blake was into sports and during a gymnastics display he hit his head which caused a traumatic brain injury. The doctor told his parents that Blake’s injury was like being hit by a car at 60mph.

However, Blake had surgery and the doctors were confident that he would recover, although Blake would never be the same as he had been before.

Hi I’m Blake is a documentary that follows Blake’s road to recovery right from where he went into surgery to where he graduated from high school. Taking video footage from when Blake was very small, director John Michael Simpson uses those moments to punctuate the times where he was learning to do all the things that he had taken for granted before.

Although, the documentary uses Blake as a springboard to talk about the wider issue of people who suffer brain injuries and proves that with the right care, people like Blake can still continue in life.

When somebody sees a documentary or a movie about somebody who has gone through a life changing injury then there are certain things they may expect. There is a certain level of over dramatization as the documentary or movie emphasises how the person who they were before has been lost forever. There’s also a focus on the dramatic struggles that a person has to go through in order to carry on. Thankfully though, Hi I’m Blake does none of these things and instead chooses to look positively at how who Blake was before may have gone, but who he is now is what’s important.

That’s where the documentary’s subject comes into his own because Blake is shown to have a personality and a willingness to learn which surely helped in his recovery. He’s shown to be good with people, caring for those he doesn’t know and he even has a sense of humour which may lead to a side career in stand-up comedy.

Following Blake so closely shows a fully rounded depiction of what people go through when recovering from a brain injury. It may even inspire more of a focus in brain injuries so that people like Blake can get the help they need.

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