Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life is an award-winning documentary by Ric Burns that offers an intimate look at the unconventional life of neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks. The film features exclusive interviews with Dr. Sacks conducted just weeks after he received a terminal diagnosis and months before his death in August 2015. It draws on interviews with close friends and colleagues as well as exclusive access to the Oliver Sacks Foundation's archives.
The film’s release was accompanied by an impact campaign that extended its reach and inspired the next generation of scientists with Dr. Sacks’ work and enduring legacy. Working in close partnership with the Oliver Sacks Foundation, the impact campaign created opportunities to hear from scientists at film screenings, learn more through additional media content, and share personal stories with friends, colleagues, and fellow fans on social media.
Highlights
130
US theaters and 112 UK theaters
24
international film festivals
4
educational media partnerships
300K
social media impressions
Initiative
The release of Oliver Sacks: His Own Life and its corresponding impact campaign set out to inspire the next generation of scientists and storytellers by:
- Celebrating Dr. Sacks’ contributions to neuroscience, psychology, and literature
- Amplifying stories about unconventional pathways to careers in science
- Engaging medical professionals, students, and the scientific community around Dr. Sacks’ empathetic approach to caregiving and medicine
- Attracting new audiences to Oliver Sacks’ literary body of work
Screenings & Events
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2019. The film played at 24 festivals, including the New York Film Festival, AFI Fest, and the Hamptons International Film Festival. It won two awards.
In May 2020, the film premiered at Lincoln Center Theater in New York, NY. An early success in documentary virtual releases, the U.S. theatrical release in fall 2020 included 130 cinemas, 115 of which released the film virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film garnered positive press reviews and more than 300K social media impressions.
Tangled Bank Studios organized virtual and in-person screening events, partnering with scientists and filmmakers to discuss Dr. Sacks’ life and legacy, including:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting - February 2020: In-person screening and Q&A with Rocky Collins
- Museum of Tolerance - December 2020: Virtual screening and panel with Kate Edgar, Bill Hayes, Ric Burns, and Kenneth Turan
- Tribeca Talks At Home - December 2020: Virtual screening and panel with Robert De Niro, Kate Edgar, Walter Parkes, and Ric Burns
- NAS Science and Entertainment Exchange - January 2021: Screening and panel with Christof Koch, Ric Burns, Kate Edgar, and Neal Baer
- NY Academy of Sciences - March 2026: Screening and panel following the NYAS Kindness conference featuring Ric Burns and Dr. Elissa Epel
Social Media
With support from the Oliver Sacks Foundation, influential friends and literary peers of Dr. Sacks were engaged to help generate excitement around the film’s release. Highlights included:
- @stephenfry (12.4M Twitter followers): “One of the greatest, most talented, most brilliant but - more importantly - friendliest, kindest, and most inspiring people ever to walk (and ride) the earth … can't wait to see this. But meanwhile, there are his books to go back to…”
- @louistheroux (2.2M Twitter followers): “I haven't seen this but as a huge fan of Oliver Sacks (Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings...) I am curious to... coming to UK & Irish cinemas for one night this Weds.”
- @Atul_Gawande (382K Twitter followers): “Very excited about the premiere of “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life” on PBS Friday 4/9 at 9/8c or stream it on http://pbs.org/oliversacks. I've seen the film, and it made me miss him even more than I already had. #OliverSacksPBS”
- Science Friday (985K Facebook followers): “Hear our friend Robert Krulwich explain how neurologist Oliver Sacks was “storying people back into the world.” - via American Masters. "Oliver Sacks: His Own Life" premieres tonight, April 9 at 9/8c. #OliverSacksPBS #Documentary”
Educational Outreach
In the Classroom and Community
In partnership with PBS Learning Media, the initiative developed a series of short video interviews with scientists, doctors, and medical students who share how they were inspired by Dr. Sacks’ work.
Tangled Bank Studios also partnered with Kino Lorber to make the film freely available to hundreds of universities, colleges, and non-profits in the US and Canada in the fall of 2021. In the spring of 2022, educational screening events were held at 54 academic institutions, including:
- Columbia University
- Weill Cornell Medical College
- Brown University
- USC Brain & Creativity Institute
Partnerships
Tangled Bank Studios partnered with several organizations to reach audiences with short film-related content and offer opportunities to share about how the work of Oliver Sacks influenced their lives.
- Seeker: Seeker was one of the web’s top video producers targeting Gen-Z and millennial demographics. They created content inspired by the film for an episode of the Human Series on YouTube and an episode of the Surprisingly Brilliant Podcast. Their content reached more than 240,000 people and introduced Dr. Sacks to a young audience.
- Call Me Ishmael: Call Me Ishmael is a literary organization dedicated to creating unique ways for readers to celebrate and discover great books. HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and the Oliver Sacks Foundation developed a four-week-long promotion with Call Me Ishmael to invite Oliver Sacks fans to record a message about how their lives have been enriched by one or more of Dr. Sacks’ books.
Press Coverage
IndieWire
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life review: A calm celebration of the beloved science writer and his many chapters
The Los Angeles Times
Review: Awakening to the joy of Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, a documentary for odd ducks
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, Ric Burns’ majestic documentary, covers all eight decades of the unconventional physician’s life but is rooted in the final months before his death of cancer in 2015 at the age of 82… A moving portrait of a man taking deep stock of his life with great satisfaction and verve.
About the Film
Released at festivals, in theaters, and on PBS, the film features exclusive interviews with Sacks conducted just weeks after he received a terminal diagnosis, and months prior to his death in August 2015. The film also features nearly two dozen deeply revealing, personal interviews with family members, colleagues, patients, and close friends.
The award-winning documentary draws on exclusive access to the Oliver Sacks Foundation's archives and shows how Dr. Sacks sought to understand others’ lived experiences and worked to treat the individual, not just the disease. His empathetic approach to caregiving and medicine is further illuminated by his powerful storytelling. Dubbed the “poet laureate of contemporary medicine” by The New York Times, Dr. Sacks brought many unheard voices into the mainstream for the first time. Through his captivating interviews in the film, viewers are treated to one last story of Oliver Sacks's unique human experience: his own.
Learn More
Explore more about Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, read press coverage, and find out where to watch.