S&F: What was his primary scientific pursuit? Of course youвЂ™re manipulating it just as much as if you were writing it, but itвЂ™s a different kind of form of manipulation thatвЂ™s been fun and challenging for my colleagues and me. ItвЂ™s like a sock turned inside out and you have to find ways to let it speak for itself. ItвЂ™s been challenging and interesting for me in a craft way to work on a film, one of the only times, that has no narration, because itвЂ™s very different.

Oliver was kind of a self-created natural scientist of biological reality, who was a deep diver into the brain and mind. I think it was also a departure in that the science piece of the film was front and center, as would have to be the case with someone who was this complicated, self-constructed mixture of doctor, neurologist, clinician, and writer. RB: The film is a departure in the fact that the subject of the film was obviously alive while we were interviewing him. S&F: How would you say this film differs from the other documentaries that youвЂ™ve made? Then we did 25 interviews with people who knew him incredibly well, from his closest colleagues, friends, family members, scientists, to people who didnвЂ™t know him well but had extremely interesting things to say about his work. So we piled in and did about 80 hours with interviews of him in February, April, and June 2015. This was a guy at five minutes to midnight, hyper-motivated to think and feel and try to articulate what he thought about basically everything. RB: HeвЂ™d written this book and had been thinking a lot about what his life meant. S&F: What was it like meeting him right after he had learned about his prognosis? His wonderful colleague Kate Edgar, who has been his editor and chief of staff for 30 years, called and said, OliverвЂ™s going to die, could you come and interview him? So we met an 81-year-old man who had just finished a remarkably open memoir about the tribulations of his life that were enormous, and far greater, than one would have thought on the basis of the soothing, bushy bearded, avuncular, bespectacled Oliver Sacks.

Ric Burns: We got into the project right after Oliver received his mortal diagnosis in the early days of January 2015.

Science & Film spoke on the phone with Burns about the project. The film received support from the Alfred P. Ric BurnsвЂ™ documentary, OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE, will be completed by the summer of 2018 and will travel to festivals before premiering on PBSвЂ™ American Masters. Burns was with Sacks through the publication of his New York Times piece вЂњMy Own Life,вЂќ in which he announced to readers that he was dying of liver cancer and reflected on his lifeвЂ“вЂњI have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.вЂќ Peabody and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Ric Burns documented renowned neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks ( The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat) during the last months of his life. Biography and Biology: Ric BurnsвЂ™ New Oliver Sacks Film

Pbs american masters oliver sacks