Close Up with Gretchen Berland | Atrium Magazine

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Close Up with Gretchen Berland

Published: Monday, April 4th, 2011. Categories: Caregivers • Identify

Produced by Vikram Sengupta & Sascha Qian

T H E P I O N E E R S E R I E S

Listen to the Interview Here

After an established career in TV documentaries, Gretchen Berland changed course and applied herself in medicine. Each time she picked up the film reel again, she became increasingly curious about the unfiltered perspective and the overlooked story. What results is a series of novel projects, culminating in her latest work, Rolling–a documentary about 3 patients bound to wheelchairs.

Gretchen Berland is an internist and filmmaker. She worked on the Emmy award-winning PBS “Nova” series before applying to medical school.

In 2001, after questioning if healthcare professionals adequately grasp their patient’s lives and perspectives, she gave video cameras to three patients bound to wheelchairs to record their lives–truly from their own perspectives (read NEJM article). The result–the award-winning documentary Rolling–is an eye-opening account that stirred audiences worldwide. Dr. Berland was award the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2004.

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