Mark O'Brien is an American journalist, poet, and disability rights advocate. Mark's biography formed the basis for the short film "Breathing Lessons. The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien. " This film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 1997. In 2012, the film "Surrogate" dedicated to Mark was shot, in which O'Brien was played by American actor John Hawkes. The film "Surrogate" is based on O'Brien's essay "On Selling a Sex Surrogate", which he wrote in 1990.
Biography and personal life
Mark O'Brien was born on July 31, 1949 in Boston, Massachusetts, but the boy spent his childhood in Sacramento. In 1955, at the age of 6, Mark contracted polio (infantile spinal palsy) and as a result of the disease remained partially paralyzed for life. Moreover, Mark was dependent on an artificial respiration apparatus (iron lung), without which he could breathe on his own for only a few hours.
Mark worked and actually lived at the University of California at Berkeley, California. This institution is considered the best public university in the world and the only public university in the top 10 best universities in the world.
The university provided O'Brien with all the facilities for journalism and writing, as well as artificial respiration to support his life. Mark chose for himself the profession of poet and journalist, as well as a lawyer for people with disabilities.
O'Brien co-founded the small publishing firm Lemonade Factory, which specialized in poets with disabilities.
During his life, Mark wrote several volumes of poems. One of the most famous poetry volumes is Breath. Also, Mark's autobiography “How I Became a Human Being. Finding a disabled person for independence”, co-written by him with Gillian Kendall.
In the last years of his life, O'Brien was seriously ill with bronchitis. He died on July 4, 1999 at the age of 50. According to some sources - due to complications caused by inflammation of the bronchi, according to other sources - due to post-polio syndrome.
Education
Mark O'Brien entered the University of California at Berkeley in 1978 and was educated in 1982 with a BA in English Literature. Then, after repeated attempts, the young man managed to enter the department of journalism and graduate with a master's degree. In doing so, he created a precedent that later helped many applicants with severe disabilities gain access to education at public universities.
Throughout the educational process, and then throughout his life, Mark was forced to move between the university campus and his small apartment, in which there was an artificial respiration apparatus.
Personal life
Cheryl Cohen Green became Mark's life partner. Their meeting and romantic relationship were filmed in the movie "Surrogate".
Cheryl Cohen Greene (born 1944) is an American sexual surrogate partner best known for her work with Mark O'Brien. Like Mark, two films have been made about her. In 2012, Sharyl published her memoir Intimate Life: Sex, Love, and My Journey as a Surrogate Partner.
They met in 1998 when Mark was 38 years old. Cheryl Cohen Greene was a board-certified clinical sexologist, therapist and surrogate sex partner who has helped people with disabilities with sex for many years. O'Brien was a virgin before meeting her. Cheryl had at least 6 sexual contacts with O'Brien.
Creation
O'Brien's first work to be published in the press was his essay on independent living Co-Evolution Quarterly (1979). The article was noticed by Sandy Close, executive director of the Pacific News Service, and invited O'Brien to work as their correspondent.
Despite his physical limitations, O'Brien was able to publish many of his articles and poems, and even became the founder of a small publishing house "Lemonade Factory" in 1997, which specialized in distributing poems written by people with disabilities.
Mark also authored several books on poetry, including his most famous book Breathing and his autobiography How I Became Human.
According to O'Brien, he was a deeply religious Catholic and his strong faith helped him cope with all of his life's difficulties. Mark considered Shakespeare and baseball to be the biggest passions in his life.
Films about his life
Two short films have been filmed and released about the life of Mark O'Brien.
The first one is “Breathing lessons. The Life and Works of Mark O'Brien (1997). American short documentary directed by Jessica Yu, which has won several awards, including the 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
The plot of the picture shows O'Brien's spiritual struggle, his struggle with physical limitations, the search for himself and his place in this life.
The second is Surrogate (2012) directed by Ben Levin. A tragicomedy independent feature film based on real events. The role of Mark O'Brien was played by American actor John Hawkes. The film is based on O'Brien's essay "Seeing a Sex Surrogate", which he wrote for Sun magazine in 1990. The role of the surrogate partner was played by Cheryl Cohen-Green, who later became friends with O'Brien and remained friends with him until Mark's death.
Surrogate won the Audience Award for American Drama at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the 2012 San Sebastian Film Festival.
The plot of the film tells the story of the 38-year-old poet and journalist Mark O'Brien, who has been paralyzed since the age of 6. Realizing that he will not live long, Mark decides to part with his virginity through the services of a sex surrogate. To do this, he finds the already middle-aged Cheryl Cohen Green (played by Helen Hunt), with whom O'Brien quickly finds common physical limitations, his artificial respiration apparatus, next to which Mark had to spend most of his life.
Most of the screen time Mark O'Brien spends in conversations with Father Brendan (played by William Macy) - Mark's only friend and advisor, who replaced him with a personal psychologist.
