Dr. Gabor Maté opens up in Physician, Heal Thyself at the Cinematheque on March 20 and the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival on April 9
The world-renowned specialist in trauma and addiction confronts his own demons in Asher Penn’s documentary
A young Gabor Maté, from Physician, Heal Thyself.
Physician, Heal Thyself screens at the Cinematheque on March 20 at 7 pm and at the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival on April 9 at 7 pm
IN STARK OBSERVANCE of its own title, Physician, Heal Thyself plants its subject in front of the camera and just lets him spill, as if we’re encountering an intensive session of talk therapy. Family movies and other bits of ephemera contribute to the story—including director Asher Penn’s simple but expressive animations—but it’s the sometimes self-lacerating words and the visible emotions of Gabor Maté that viewers will remember of this exceptional documentary.
Physican, Heal Thyself takes us back to Maté’s origins in Vancouver as a Hungarian emigré and his evolution from student radical at UBC (and victim of near-fatal engineering department stunt) to the world-renowned specialist in trauma and addiction we see today. But he is wincingly honest about the destructive compulsions, both personal and professional, that have brought him here.
In other words, the work never ends, something that Dr. Maté and filmmaker Penn can discuss in further detail when they appear together for a screening of Physican, Heal Thyself at the Cinematheque on March 20. Penn will also be in attendance for a screening at the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival on April 9. 
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