Published: 25 September 2020
Last updated: 5 March 2024
ON A FRIDAY NIGHT in February 2015, the legendary British Jewish neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks gathered his inner circle in his New York City apartment. For much of his life, Sacks had penned poignant books about his disabled patients, sharing insights about their lives.
On this night, however, Sacks gave his audience a heartfelt message about his own life: He had received a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Over the next six months, Sacks gave what one of his friends, the author Lawrence Weschler, called “a master class in how to die.” He continued to write thoughtful prose, this time meditating on mortality, in the company of family, friends and his partner Bill Hayes.
Sitting for filming sessions with award-winning documentarian Ric Burns, Sacks reflected on an extraordinary, sometimes tumultuous life — running away from an Orthodox upbringing, wrestling with his homosexuality, facing rejection by the scientific community for much of his career and finally winning admiration from academia and the public.
The year he died, 70 percent of neurology majors at Columbia University Medical School credited Sacks, at least in part, as the inspiration for their choice of study.
Five years later, filmmaker Burns is ready to release his documentary about Sacks to the public. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life debuted on September 23, through New York’s Film Forum and the Kino Marquee virtual cinema platform.
FULL STORY With months to live, neurologist Oliver Sacks gave a master class on how to die (Times of Israel)
Photo: A photo of Oliver Sacks featured in the Ric Burns documentary, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life (Courtesy)
