Ric Burns | Documentary | USA | 2019 | 111m

Screening - Friday, November 6 until end of day Thursday, November 19

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life explores the life and work of the legendary neurologist and storyteller, as he shares intimate details of his battles with drug addiction, homophobia, and a medical establishment that accepted his work only decades after the fact. Sacks was a fearless explorer of unknown mental worlds who helped redefine our understanding of the brain and mind, the diversity of human experience, and our shared humanity.

A month after receiving a fatal diagnosis in January 2015, Oliver Sacks sat down for a series of filmed interviews in his apartment in New York City. For eighty hours, surrounded by family, friends, and notebooks from six decades of thinking and writing about the brain, he talked about his life and work, his abiding sense of wonder at the natural world, and the place of human beings within it. Drawing on these deeply personal reflections, as well as nearly two dozen interviews with close friends, family members, colleagues and patients, and archival material from every point in his life, this film is the story of a beloved doctor and writer who redefined our understanding of the brain and mind.

"'Oliver Sacks: His Own Life' is a moving portrait of a man taking deep stock of his life with great satisfaction and verve." -Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times

"Part of the teasing mystery of 'Oliver Sacks: His Own Life' is that the movie, like Sacks himself, refuses to pin its subject down to anything as earthly as a diagnosis, because that would reduce him." -Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Cost $9.99 (CAD taxes included)

Tickets are valid to start watching within 7 days of purchase. Once you begin, you'll have 4 days (72 hours) to finish watching.

Watching here supports Films We Like and Carbon Arc Cinema

Books by Oliver Sacks are available to order from Bookmark Halifax.