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IMDbPro

Jane

  • 2017
  • PG
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
5.9K
YOUR RATING
Jane Goodall in Jane (2017)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:29
2 Videos
99+ Photos
Science & Technology DocumentaryBiographyDocumentary

The life and work of the renowned primatology scientist, Jane Goodall, especially on her research about chimpanzees.The life and work of the renowned primatology scientist, Jane Goodall, especially on her research about chimpanzees.The life and work of the renowned primatology scientist, Jane Goodall, especially on her research about chimpanzees.

  • Director
    • Brett Morgen
  • Writers
    • Brett Morgen
    • Jane Goodall
  • Stars
    • Jane Goodall
    • Hugo Van Lawick
    • Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.8/10
    5.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Brett Morgen
    • Writers
      • Brett Morgen
      • Jane Goodall
    • Stars
      • Jane Goodall
      • Hugo Van Lawick
      • Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick
    • 33User reviews
    • 48Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 Primetime Emmys
      • 37 wins & 36 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:29
    Official Trailer
    A Celebration of Trailblazing Women
    Clip 2:07
    A Celebration of Trailblazing Women
    A Celebration of Trailblazing Women
    Clip 2:07
    A Celebration of Trailblazing Women

    Photos112

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    + 106
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    Top cast3

    Edit
    Jane Goodall
    Jane Goodall
    • Self
    Hugo Van Lawick
    Hugo Van Lawick
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • Director
      • Brett Morgen
    • Writers
      • Brett Morgen
      • Jane Goodall
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews33

    7.85.8K
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    Featured reviews

    9Sasha_Lauren

    A simple, quiet, and beautiful documentary

    JANE

    Although I've watched shows and news coverage about Jane Goodall through the years, I found this documentary to be a fresh take on the beloved subject, Jane. The narrative follows Jane's personal development on a parallel track with a close chronicle of her work. I learned a lot about Jane that I didn't know, and I want to learn more. I appreciated that the film is simple, quiet, and narrated in Jane's own calming voice. I find her physical presence to be lovely and uplifting and the footage that was just found in the past few years is fascinating and beautiful.
    9howard.schumann

    A Wise and Important Film

    In 1960, primatologist Jane Goodall, the twenty six-year-old secretary of paleontologist Louis Leakey, was chosen to conduct research in Africa for his study of the influence of apes on primitive man. Though she was not a scientist and never attended university, her open mind, love of animals, and the strong support she received from her mother (who accompanied her to Africa) influenced his choice, one that turned out to be a very wise one. Reconstructed from over one hundred hours of footage shot by nature photographer Hugo van Lavick, Jane Goodall's life is brought to the screen in the riveting documentary simply called Jane.

    Directed by Brett Morgen("Cobain: Montage of Heck"), the film, which combines recent interviews with Jane, now 83, with the archival footage only discovered in 2014, transports us to the Gombe Stream National Park in Northwestern Tanzania, shortly before the country gained its independence from Britain in 1961. As narrated by Goodall from an audio recording of her 1999 book "Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey," we witness Jane's groundbreaking research into the behavior of chimpanzees in their natural environment, research that was initially questioned by the entrenched scientific community who said that her findings could not be taken seriously because she was a woman and lacked adequate training.

    The first person to observe chimpanzees in the wild, Jane was forced to keep her distance until the animals could accept the presence of the "white ape." Supported by the magnificent cinematography of Ellen Kraus and a moving score by Philip Glass, we see a silent Jane searching for observation points in the immaculate solitude of the mountains she grew to love. It was a process that required patience and fearlessness, which Jane tells us came from the fact that she did not know enough to be afraid. Her first important breakthrough occurred when she observed Greybeard, the oldest male chimp, using a twig tool to dig out termites from a brush. The discovery was contrary to the consensus opinion that only humans could use tools and was met with resistance, especially by religious groups. Though we now know that chimpanzees are among the most intelligent primates and that there is 99% identical DNA between human beings and chimpanzees, the media reported the story of Jane's accomplishments with the usual skepticism. Citing the fact that she gave the animals names instead of numbers, they asserted that it showed her tendency to anthropomorphize them and to over identify with the subjects she was researching. In spite of the critics, Jane received a grant from the National Geographic to continue her work and, though she was initially resistant to the idea, they also sent her a Dutch filmmaker, Hugo van Lavick, to record her work on film.

    Developing a relationship with Hugo, they eventually married and gave birth to a son they named Grub. It was Jane's observation of the bond between Flo, an older female, and her baby Flint that provided her with some lessons in child rearing, though the bond between Flo and Flint did not end happily. In one troubling incident, after the chimpanzees began to steal bananas from their tent, Jane and Hugo began to supply them to the chimps, hoping this would prevent a more aggressive intrusion. It was a decision that had to be rethought, however, when the animals invaded their tent and stole everything they could get their hands on.

    Even more distressing was an outbreak of polio among the community and the civil war that broke out between two factions of chimpanzees after the death of one of their maternal leaders, lending irony to Jane's assertion that, "The more I learned the more I realized how much like us they were." Unfortunately, Jane and Hugo began to drift apart when he lost the funding for his work in Gombe and left to photograph wild animals on the Serengeti Plain in Northern Tanzania, one of the natural wonders of the world.

    Now designated as an engendered species, chimpanzees have already disappeared from four African countries, and are nearing extinction in many others. Millions of chimpanzees used to live throughout equatorial Africa but today there are only 220,000 left in the world, a sad reminder of the increasing degradation of our planet. Thanks to The Jane Goodall Institute, an organization she founded that is dedicated to conservation, she has become an activist, traveling around the world talking about the need to protect endangered species, climate change, and the environment, attempting to build, in Werner Erhard's phrase, "a world that works for everyone."
    9newday-172-261427

    Not just a wildlife documentary

    Jane is not just a wildlife documentary about chimpanzees. It's about life, relationship, persistence, success, failure, love, death and nearly every aspects of life in most beautiful way you can imagine.

    A very impressive, effective and soulful movie which no one should miss.

    Respect Ms Jane Goodall.
    9milbankj

    This brings back memories

    "Jane" is a pretty good doco; indeed, among the best I have seen. Unlike many nowadays, including some other National Geographic product, it maintains a high standard in all respects. This includes its overall construction, the near-impeccable score, the absence of hysterical and breathless dialogue and commentary, and most of all, the editing and fine mixing of archival and new moving and still imagery. The story, of course, stands on its own two feet.

    So I have no quibbles. Any complaints about some fuzzy pictures ignore such realities as the quality of films made in difficult circumstances with the equipment of the day decades ago, even by professionals, and the few home movie clips which this production employs judiciously. Critics of fairly frequent footage of Goodall carrying and using binoculars, and staring into the jungled distance are a humorous reminder of my eight visits to Africa. I found many tourists (especially but not exclusively American) with such a low attention span that they complain if they don't see an amazing critter around every bush and have no patience for searching. I don't mind "Jane" reminding us that binoculars are among the most used and more important tools of wildlife watchers and photographers. Goodall's need for binoculars sits side by side with her discovery that chimpanzees, just like humans, make and use tools.
    10rshatcheries

    Just a beautiful story !!! Stunning

    What an amazing true story, makes you smile form ear to ear.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      In a 2018 interview on Build (2014), Brett Morgen spoke about one of the life choices Jane Goodall made that interested him in making the film: "When Jane was coming up, and even today, when a woman and a man decide to have a child, it's often the woman who has to give up her career. That's just the way people expect it. Now imagine what it was like in 1968?? It was absolutely expected that Jane would give up her career to have a child. Well guess what? Jane does NOT give up her career to have a child, and it's one of, I think, the most powerful moments in the film for audience members, particularly of a certain age and of a certain generation and a certain gender, where it's actually a heroic thing. I've found that one of the biggest challenges in being an artist is trying to be a great artist and a great parent. It's impossible. You can be one or the other. You have to pick. Because they both TAKE TIME, and there's only so many hours in the day. So that narrative, to me, was very intriguing."
    • Quotes

      Jane Goodall: It was probably mostly frustrating because they kept running away. And while chimpanzees are running away from you, you can't really get down to the details of their behavior and in the back of my mind it was always the fear if I don't find out something exciting, the money will run out cause all my earlier observations were either chimps close up running away or sitting on the peak or some other spot and watching them through binoculars.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Jake Gyllenhaal/Dr. Jane Goodall/Yo Gotti feat. Nicki Minaj (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      In the Shadow of Man
      Written by Philip Glass

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    FAQ18

    • How long is Jane?Powered by Alexa

    Details

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    • Release date
      • November 24, 2017 (Ireland)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Jane: In the Shadow of Man
    • Filming locations
      • Dar es Salaam, Tanzania(Jane Goodall interview)
    • Production companies
      • National Geographic Studios
      • Public Road Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,723,379
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $58,348
      • Oct 22, 2017
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,921,221
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 30 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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