Film is a distillation of Canadian scientist’s life and thought

David Suzuki, iconic Canadian scientist, educator, broadcaster and activist, delivers a last lecture — what he describes as “a distillation of my life and thoughts, my legacy, what I want to say before I die” — in the film Forces of Nature.

Cinema Politica hosts a screening of the documentary, winner of a people’s choice award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 5, in room 108, Odette Building. Admission is by donation.

Filmed before a live audience, in front of a memory box of moving, distilled images, Suzuki articulates a core, urgent message: we have exhausted the limits of the biosphere and it is imperative that we re-think our relationship with the natural world. He looks unflinchingly at the strains on our interconnected web of life and out of our dire present circumstances, he offers up a blueprint for sustainability and survival.

The film interweaves the lecture with scenes from the places and events in Suzuki's life, making it a biography of ideas — forged by the major social, scientific, cultural and political events of the past 70 years.

View a trailer for Forces of Nature: