Patrick O’Connor

Board Member

Patrick O’Connor is an award-winning writer/director whose first documentary film, The Invisible Patients, had its national PBS broadcast premiere on AMERICA REFRAMED in 2018.  

In 2021, he released Look Away, Look Away, a documentary that captures the fierce five-year battle that led to the removal of the Mississippi state flag in 2020.  The film won the 2022 Erik Barnouw Award for Best Documentary from the Organization of American Historians. 

His most recent film, The Zebra and the Bear, is about how a mother’s fierce determination to save her daughter from a fatal, ultra-rare genetic disease leads her on a journey to raise millions of dollars and drive the development of a pioneering gene-therapy treatment.

His films have screened at the Sebastopol, Oxford, Heartland, Cucalorus, Chicago International Social Change Film Festivals, as well as at dozens of universities and national/international conferences on bio-ethics,  healthcare, history and genetics. 

The films are available on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, Kanopy and other streaming platforms. 

Prior to working in documentary film, Patrick ran a small marketing communications company serving corporate and non-profit clients with a primary focus on healthcare.  

Born and raised in the Chicago area, he is a graduate of Santa Clara University (BA) and the University of Arkansas (MFA).  An avid cyclist, Patrick lives and works in Pass Christian, Mississippi with his wife, the writer Margaret McMullan.