Independent Lens
Great Invisible
Crew members, families, fishermen, and others still haunted by the Deepwater Horizon explosion provide first-hand accounts of their experience.
Goodbye Solo
An elderly man hires Solo, a Senegalese cab driver, to drive him to a mountaintop in North Carolina where he plans to commit suicide.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- June 1, 2010
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Series and Special Projects
Producer/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
- If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis
- 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
- Great Invisible
- If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis
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The Film
On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever.
Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his young family. William is a tough, Southern good old boy with a lifetime of regrets. One man’s American dream is just beginning, while the other’s is quickly winding down. But despite their differences, both men soon realize they need each other more than either is willing to admit. Through this unlikely but unforgettable friendship, Goodbye Solo deftly explores the passing of a generation, as well as the rapidly changing face of America.
Solo, a Senegalese taxi driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is hired by William, a gruff, 70-year-old, white Southerner, to drive him to a nearby mountaintop in two weeks. Solo soon comes to understand William's plan, and makes one of his own — to befriend the stubborn old man and try to change his mind.
