Ric Burns • United States • 2020

A beloved figure who redefined understanding of the human mind.

Oliver Sacks discovered he was going to die in January 2015. Born and raised in London to physician parents—his mother was one of the first female surgeons in England—perhaps no one has illuminated the magic and mysteries of the human mind more than Sacks. In a marathon interview at his adopted home in Manhattan, Sacks considers his six decades of researching, writing, and thinking about the brain, his abiding sense of wonder at the natural world, and the place of human beings within it.

Complementing Sacks’s personal reflections with interviews with close friends, family members, colleagues and patients, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life tells the story of a beloved doctor considered the "poet laureate of contemporary medicine." Ric Burns’s documentary premiered at Telluride, CPH:DOX, Sarasota and the Hamptons International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life is a NYT Critic’s Pick.