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i saw this first at a film festival as a guest of bob ingersoll (the "hero" of the story). he introduced us to james marsh (the director) and simon chinn (the producer). so lets say my critique could be influenced. that said, this is going to be a documentary that'll garner good reviews in general and likely go on to win awards. james has already won an oscar for his previous documentary "man on wire" (which i still haven't seen), so he's no hack. his choice of this story, as he related it during an interview after the showing, was because the story is so rich. its truly a compelling story and all he had to do really was get it down on film. he accomplished that well.
nim's story is that he was taken at birth to be part of an experiment. the experiment was to raise him as a human, teach him language (sign language), and ....well....see where that goes. if that sound's very 70's hippy-ish experimental science...it was. its clear early on that herbert terrace, the man behind the project, did not have sound practice in experimenting. what becomes clearly is the failure to consider the ethical implications of his experiment. what i took from it, was that he seemed to dream up this project, implement it with almost no regard to how it would be done nor who would be involved in performing any task related to it. he only seemed interested in that data that came out of it. even that seems questionable, since the "mom" chosen to raise nim as hers didn't initially keep much of any data nor as the film points out do a whole lot towards teaching nim language. later people begin to develop the experiment into a project. each of these girls involved in raising nim seem to be choosen by herbert's sexual interests.
later as nim grows he becomes increasingly hard to control. people start getting hurt, sometimes badly. the experiment is abruptly halted and nim is sent back to the facility where he was born. this is were bob first gets involved with nim. his relationship with nim was personal; they were clearly friends. financial problems lead to the chimps including nim to be sold for scientific experiments. this in turn leads bob to become a champion for chimp and primate rights. he works to this day in supporting the understanding and ethical treatment of these creatures, as well as being involved in rescue of ones that have been mistreated.
nim's story gets more and more sad. it should be said that this is not a happy film. there are wonderful moments of joy, but there is a tragic story being told here as well. its a warning and a call to arms. all of which is created in a very level headed, complex, varied, and emotional story. i watch a lot of documentaries and this is well situated at the top with fine documentaries. its well done.
bob, being the advocate he is, i imagine convinced james to put a short extra documentary on the dvd called "bob's journey" which is primarily his small effort towards understanding and support of these animals. he made his plea at the festival as well, and its great to see his message getting out to a larger audience.
(for you bob: if anyone is reading this...bob works at mindy's memory primate sanctuary. check them out, give them some support. its a truly honorable endeavor. mindysmem.org )
simply good.
(10/10)
10/10
