Educational Media Reviews Online

This production purports to be a biography of David Suzuki, Canadian scientist, environmentalist, author, and television host, and indeed it is that; however it is most memorable for its account of the Japanese internment during WWII. Despite being several generations removed from Japan, he and his family found themselves, along with 23,000 other Japanese-Canadians, relocated from their homes and jobs to an internment camp. This experience changed his view of himself-from then on he felt compelled to prove himself a "good Canadian." The internment segments are illustrated with black and white still photographs and are by far the strongest part of the film. Flavored with an intimate informality (sequences in which Suzuki drives through neighborhoods where he once lived and reminisces), and tempered by the subject's candid and unusually objective assessment of himself, the film traces his life and career from his early childhood, with comments from his sisters, school friends, a former teacher, colleagues, and environmental adversaries. The problem lies in that Suzuki has done so many things with so much intensity that 45 minutes is hardly enough time to even skim over his life and careers. Although the film does chronicle his career as a geneticist, his realization that science is "not morally neutral," his work as an environmentalist (combining "my passions"-- civil rights and science), and his success in demystifying science through his television show, there's simply not enough time to address those issues in any depth. Recommended for high school level and above, primarily for its perspective on racism and race relations.