|
Project Nim
| Released |
12 August 2011 |
| Director |
James Marsh |
Starring
|
Bob Angelini, Bern Cohen, Reagan Leonard |
| Producer(s) |
Simon Chinn |
| Origin |
United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
99 minutes |
| Genre |
Documentary |
| Rating |
12A |
|
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Born to be wild.
Project Nim opens with an account of the birth of a baby chimpanzee, a beautiful event until barely a few minutes later he is ripped from his mother’s arms to become the centre of a scientific experiment. This is a tone which is maintained throughout Project Nim, which moves quickly from moments of tenderness to moments of horror. The result is a compelling documentary which gets right to the heart of a dark story of the exploitation of an animal.
Project Nim is the latest documentary by director James Marsh (who also directed the Oscar winning Man on Wire) and it tells the story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee brought up by a human family in 1970s New York. Nim was taught sign language while being raised as a human child in an attempt to discover if a chimpanzee could communicate with humans using a form of language. The story is an unsettling one, which raises many ethical questions about the interaction between humans and animals.
The story is primarily told through interviews with participants in the experiment– the women who raised him like one of their own children while at the same time teaching him sign language, the scientist who oversaw the experiment but who was ultimately just a little bit more interested in results than Nim’s welfare, and a host of others. Marsh lets these people tell their own intricate story in which there is no one good guy or bad guy, only complex human relationships. These relationships are made all the more complex when applied to a wild animal, who despite such obvious intelligence, isn’t made for these kind of close relationships with humans.
The filmmakers stay well clear of any moral high ground, and present the facts only. While they are sometimes quite brutal in their honesty, it is clear that very little, if any, of this story has had to be exaggerated for the purposes of the film. Nim is playful and dangerous, capable of deep, meaningful interaction with humans, but also capable of savage violence at a moment’s notice. The fear is evident in the participants faces when the talk about being bitten and attacked during the course of their research.
Project Nim is a brilliant documentary– insightful, thought-provoking and beautifully shot throughout. Marsh succeeds in presenting the troubled life of a highly intelligent wild animal. He doesn’t attempt to over humanise Nim, but still manages to create a genuine sympathy for the tragedy of his life story.
- Bernard O’Rourke |
