Project Nim (2011)

Tells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s.

Director:

James Marsh

Writer:

Elizabeth Hess (book)

Stars:

Nim Chimpsky, Stephanie LaFarge, Herbert Terrace

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 16 wins & 28 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nim Chimpsky	...	Himself (archive footage)
Stephanie LaFarge	...	Herself
Herbert Terrace	...	Himself
Wer LaFarge	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jenny Lee	...	Herself
Laura-Ann Petitto	...	Herself
Bill Tynan	...	Himself
Joyce Butler	...	Herself
Renne Falitz	...	Herself
Bob Ingersoll	...	Himself
Alyce Moore	...	Herself
James Mahoney	...	Himself (as Dr. James Mahoney)
Henry Herrmann	...	Himself
Cleveland Amory	...	Himself (archive footage)
Marion Probst	...	Herself

Storyline

From the Oscar-winning team behind MAN ON WIRE comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature - and indeed our own - is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.

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Plot Keywords:

1970s | chimpanzee | title appears in text | two word title | linguistics | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some strong language, drug content, thematic elements and disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 August 2011 (UK)

Also Known As:

Le Projet Nim

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$25,820, 10 July 2011, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$410,077, 11 December 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

Red Box Films, Passion Pictures, BBC Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 100 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Veteran primate choreographer and actor Peter Elliott actually met and worked with Nim Chimpsky when he was researching chimpanzees for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). He also met and worked with another famous signing chimp by the name of Washoe.

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Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: The Vow (2012)

User Reviews

fascinating insightful

This James Marsh (Man on Wire) documentary examines the life of Nim Chimpsky who was raised in 70s as an experiment to show chimps can think like man. They taught him to sign, and raised him as a child with a human family. At first, it's hailed as a success. But he soon became too powerful to handle and more and more he is institutionalized. The professor finally ends the experiment sending Nim to a medical research facility. The film interviews all those people who interacted with Nim.

Sure it has a fascinating subject in the chimp Nim, but the more fascinating subjects are the humans who inhabit his life. From the professor who never saw Nim as any more than a subject. To the family who yearn to reconnect with him. And finally people who would rescue him from isolation. The camera really turns away from the animal back to all of us as a species.