6.6 / 10
(5 votes)
Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien is a 1996 American short documentary film directed by Jessica Yu. Mark O'Brien was a journalist and poet who lived in Berkeley, California. The documentary explored his spiritual struggle coping with his disability; he had to use an iron lung much of the time due to childhood polio. O'Brien died on 4 July 1999, from post-polio syndrome. It won an Oscar at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997 for Documentary Short Subject.
United States of America
Documentary
35 minutes
1996
Jessica Yu
Inscrutable Films,
Pacific News Service
1995
6.0
1996
6.2
1967
5.8
1964
6.2
1998
6.0
2001
5.0
1990
0.0
2000
5.7
2007
5.0
1994
0.0
2001
6.0
2013
0.0
2005
6.1
2005
8.5
1996
0.0
1983
0.0
2003
7.2
2016
5.0
2012
5.2
2020
7.8