Project Nim
Directed By: James Marsh
Director of Photography: Michael Simmons, Editor: Jinx Godfrey, Production Designer: Markus Kirschner, Original Music: Dickon Hinchliffe
Rated: PG-13 for foul language (not spoken by Nim)
James Marsh’s Project Nim is about the lines between human and ape, and the strange way they blend together. And as much as it is about one very special chimpanzee and his closeness to humanity, it is also about humanity’s own closeness to a devolved state.
The film is an interesting and often moving follow-up to Mr. Marsh’s Man on Wire (he also directed the middle section of The Red Riding Trilogy), the awe-inspiring documentary about the man who danced his way across the Twin Towers. Project Nim is a more straight forward documentary; It has a somber tone and a more typical subject. But Mr. Marsh’s focus throughout the film—not really on the experiment, but on the humans surrounding it—is what turns the film into something else. Mr. Marsh sheds less light on the experience of chimpanzees than on the experience of humans.
