An absorbing exploration into the life of a secular saint, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life blends documentary with memoir and obituary to create a film of much emotion and artistry.

At the end of our lives, the hope is that we have done some good in the world. Oliver Sacks most definitely did just that. As a famed neurologist and author, Sacks brought a humanity to the science of the human mind, especially to the treatment of patients afflicted by mental illness who were once discarded as second-hand citizens by a medical profession of little empathy.

Although portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1990 film Awakenings, and with several best-selling books to his name, the man behind the persona of Oliver Sacks was very much kept a secret, until one night in New York City, 2015, Sacks read the manuscript that would become his second autobiography, “On the Move: A Life.”

The events of that night accumulated into Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, a documentary by Ric Burns (Made for Each Other) who presents Sacks’ life and legacy with high grade storytelling skill and mesmerising artistry. With Sacks’ reflections as a guide, it is the ultimate calling card for the neurologist who would die a matter of months after he went on the record about who he is, and the man he used to be.

Beginning with his upbringing in 1940s London, Sacks would explain how his brothers’ mental illness would inspire his obsession with the science of the mind. A move to the liberal climate of San Francisco would see Sacks further explore his long held secret homosexuality, and divulge deeper into drug addiction. Later, a sober and more focused Sacks would put his life’s work as a famed neurologist into play, in turn becoming a maverick in a science community that would take decades to acknowledge his work.

Burns presents these phases of Sacks’ life, and so many more, through a collage of photos and archived footage, along with the testimony of his peers and friends. The result is an incredibly touching, at times confronting, and impressively transparent testimony turned deathbed confession. Burns especially succeeds in presenting the humanity of Sacks the person and the scientist, who displayed not only a strong empathy for his patients, but often found something within himself while treating others.

In his belief that every person is a unique individual, Sacks reminds that to be human is in itself a miracle. In turn, Burns reminds how Sacks created his own miracles through medicine, leaving a legacy as a secular saint whose impact on the world is impossible to comprehend. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life is a film sure to leave viewers wrestling with a gamut of emotions. Above all is a feeling of gratefulness for this man’s contribution in the story of what it is to be human.