Project Nim (Marsh, 2011)
This week back in 2011, my Capital Times column featured the fourth Twilight film (“I’ve spent 493 minutes in the Twilight universe, at least 492 of them wishing I was somewhere else.”), Rachel Weisz in the thriller The Whistleblower featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as a rogue CIA agent, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which was produced by Rupert Murdoch’s wife-at-the-time Wendi Deng – “tepid at best and no amount of Hugh Jackman awkwardly singing and dancing can warm it up.”
But the pick of that week was a documentary about a chimpanzee:
Project Nim is a documentary about a famous (or notorious) experiment to teach human sign language to a chimpanzee and see what happened next. What followed that brainwave was a series of decisions (starting with the forced removal of baby Nim from his mother) that manage to illuminate cruel human behaviour rather more than the interior life of the chimp.
The Columbia University study was well-documented – by the academics as well as a curious media – so there’s a lot of fascinating material for the filmmakers to draw on. I’m not as convinced by the shadowy recreations that are sometimes used to fill in the gaps.
Your correspondent saw Project Nim not long after the excellent Rise of the Planet of the Apes which covered similar, yet more fantastical, territory. They would make a good double feature.
Where to watch Project Nim
Aotearoa and Australia: Streaming on DocPlay
Canada: Streaming on Knowledge
Ireland: Digital rental
India: Not currently available
USA: Streaming on Kanopy
UK: Streaming on ITVx
