ANOSMIA
A NEW YORK TIMES OP DOC, 9 min
When my dad shines his shoes on the kitchen table, the scent of the shoe polish takes him back 50 years to his childhood in Pittsburgh. Yet when I press my nose into the leather, I feel nothing. That’s because, as I discovered in fifth grade, I have no sense of smell — a rare condition called anosmia. And so, as much as I have sniffed, I have never enjoyed the greasy scents of McDonald’s fries, smelled the saltiness of ocean air or recoiled at the pungent end of a skunk’s life on a highway. For all of my 24 years, part of the human experience has been a mystery to me.
I made “Anosmia” in order to explore this sensual puzzle. The film was a rare chance for me and some fellow anosmics to get a few things off our chests. We admit what we don’t understand, what we find exciting and strange and what makes us cry.
Smell has a miraculous ability to conjure memories, inspire a connection between people and offer a sense of familiarity in a world that’s impossible to explain. So do movies. As you watch this Op-Doc video, I hope you will not only experience for a few minutes the olfactory conundrum I face every day, but also experience — and come to appreciate even more fully — your own sense of smell.