Hold Your Breath developed out of Grainger-Monsen's last project, Worlds Apart, a series of award-winning short films on cross-cultural medicine developed for medical education that have met with an overwhelmingly positive reception. The films are being used in over 750 institutions nationally, including 40% of all US medical schools, as well as for internal staff training at important medical accrediting organizations such as JCAHO and the AMA. They have also been instrumental in policy reform, such as playing a role in the UNOS Board of Directors' decision to increase minority access to kidney transplants by revision allocation priority for tissue matching.
Grainger-Monsen's previous work includes The Vanishing Line, a chronicle of her journey toward understanding the art and issues of dying, which was broadcast in 1998 on the national PBS "Point of View" series and again in an encore showing in 2000. The film has won numerous prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award nomination, as well as First Place at the Nashville Independent Film Festival and Program of the Year Award from the National Hospice Organization. It was also chosen to represent the United States in 1999 at INPUT, an annual screening event of the best and most provocative documentary films from around the world.