Optometry office sets up shop at film festival
A Newport Beach optometry office is incorporating a book signing with author Douglas Light to encourage Newport Beach Film Festival attendees to look — and see — their best.
NVISION Laser Eye Centers, which has a location on Jamboree Road and nine others throughout Southern California, and One Medical Group will host “Look Your Best, See Your Best,” a pop-up shop in the Lido “Riviera Village” to coincide with the festival.
“We want to be a good neighbor to the community, and you have to get out there to do that,” said Sandra Sellani, vice president of marketing for NVISION, of organizing the pop-up store that will offer free eye exams and personal makeovers.
“We want to help people understand the value of eyesight, so that they can participate in and enjoy the festival,” Sellani added.
The pop-up village during the film festival is aimed at bringing economic activity back to the Lido Marina Village area during the festivities.
Light, whose novel “East Fifth Bliss” was made into a screenplay that will have its world premiere Thursday as the opening-night film at the Edwards Big Newport Cinemas, will appear for a book signing from 6 to 8 p.m. April 30 at the pop-up location at 3412 Via Oporto.
The shop will also feature the work of photographer and Huntington Beach resident Kurt Weston, founder of the annual Shared Visions Art Exhibit of the Southern California College of Optometry.
“It’s a combination of showing the capabilities and accomplishments of those who have lost that sense and their ability to do amazing things with art,” Weston said of the yearly show.
Weston, who is legally blind and sees the world “much like it appears in an Impressionist painting,” said he lost his sight in 2005, due to an age-related condition.
However, though the use of magnifiers and other vision-enhancing technology, he is able to continue as an artist and help others who are blind or visually impaired find enjoyment in art as well.
Weston will appear at the pop-up shop from 4 to 5 p.m. May 3.