Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie
Invited
At the age of 74, Canadian scientist, environmental activist, and broadcaster David Suzuki returns to the University of British Columbia to deliver his last lecture, or as he put it, “what I want to say before I die.” The capacity crowd gives him a rock star’s welcome, but when he begins to speak, you sense that you are about to hear a life-changing oration. Suzuki develops a breathtaking, utterly convincing argument about the need to rethink our relationship with the natural world. As the speech unfolds, director Sturla Gunnarson expertly weaves in biographical scenes and interviews with the soft-spoken scientist so seamlessly that man and message become one. Suzuki’s childhood years in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, his teenage passion for fishing and mucking about in swamps, his early disillusionment with much scientific progress (its propensity to destroy nature), his visit to a Hiroshima memorial, all echo one of the main scientific tenets of his speech—that all living beings are connected to one another. It is a tour de force. EM
Director
Sturla Gunnarsson
Producers
Sturla Gunnarsson, Janice Tufford, Yves J. Ma
Editors
Nick Hector, CCE
Cinematographers
Tony Westman, CSC
Release Year
2010
Festival Year
2011
Country
Canada
Run Time
93 minutes