Independent Lens
Great Invisible
Crew members, families, fishermen, and others still haunted by the Deepwater Horizon explosion provide first-hand accounts of their experience.
If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis
Already living in a medical desert, Appalachian patients and providers continue struggling and supporting each other–and then a once-in-a-century pandemic hits.
- Funding Initiative
- Diversity Development Fund
- Series and Special Projects
Director
Ramin Bahrani
Academy Award, BAFTA, WGA and Emmy nominee Ramin Bahrani is the Iranian-American filmmaker of Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, 99 Homes and The White Tiger. A Guggenheim Fellowship winner, his debut feature doc 2nd Chance premiered at Sundance and was released by Showtime. In 2010, Roger Ebert proclaimed Bahrani as “the director of the decade.”
- Other ITVS Films
- Goodbye Solo
- Plastic Bag
Producer
Jason Orans
Independent Spirit, Image, and Emmy Award-nominee Jason Orans is a producer of scripted films, docuseries, and documentaries. Projects include: Mafia Tapes for Discovery, Charm Circle and The Great Invisible, Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo, Blood Kin, and Plastic Bag, and Dare starring Emmy Rossum and Rooney Mara.
- Other ITVS Films
- Cosmopolitan
- Goodbye Solo
- Great Invisible
Producer
Pamela Ryan
Pamela Ryan produces documentaries, scripted films, and podcasts. Her projects include: Mafia Tapes for Discovery, Ramin Bahrani’s Blood Kin, Night School, and Margaret Brown’s Emmy Award-nominated The Great Invisible, along with award-winning independent features. Pamela was selected as an Impact Partners Documentary Producing Fellow.
- Other ITVS Films
- Great Invisible
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The Film
When Ramin Bahrani was young, he would often accompany his father, a physician, to remote hospitals and clinics throughout North Carolina and Virginia. Now, decades later, rural hospitals around the country are closing at alarming rates, leaving community members without care. If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis is an exploration into the lives of people living in the rural South with limited or no access to healthcare.
