Red Box Films, Passion Pictures, BBC Films,
Herbert Terrace, Stephanie LaFarge, Jenny Lee, Laura-Ann Petitto, Joyce Butler, Bill Tynan
Nim was a chimpanzee, taken from his mother moments after birth, and raised in a human family, as much like a human child as possible. This was in the 1970’s and a project of Doctor Herbert Terrace, a scientist who wanted to investigate the question of nature vs. nurture in an epic way! This was the college environment in the 70’s so Nim certainly had a hippie upbringing! This documentary follows the early days of Nim’s development, as he grew larger and stronger and eventually was moved to the University where he could be put into more a learning environment. From the start he was taught the sign language of the deaf, and learned to communicate through signing. There were many stages of Nim’s life, and this views them all, as he moved from situation to situation, some good and some downright awful. It looks somewhat of the question of whether Nim actually could use language, or just string signs together to get what he wanted. But it also looks more deeply into the way he was treated, and whether it was right to take a free running chimp, and lock him in an iron box by himself? It includes all the people who were involved in Nim’s life including caretakers, teachers, and lab technicians. Dr. Terrace came to his conclusions about Nim’s accomplishments which disagree with some of the other experiments that followed similar paths of teaching chimps to sign. But ultimately this is not so much about the scientific conclusions, but about the amazing life and times of Nim himself.
This was truly a magnificent documentary, and one I enjoyed from start to finish. I was riveted in the story, and didn’t want to miss a moment, as we watched Nim from a tiny baby through adulthood as Nim grew to about 5 feet tall, 150 pounds, and 5 or 6 times stronger than a man. Certainly he was dangerous, but he also shows an amazing amount of emotions. Raised as a human baby, we learned a lot of what was the way he was raised, and what is innate in his DNA that still made him a Chimp after all. I thought this was a very well done documentary, and certainly even handed. It didn’t take sides too much, and lets the viewer decide what was right and what was wrong. Even those who dealt with Nim throughout his life have different opinions on what is right and wrong. This is the way to make a documentary, and this one was definitely worth watching. Nim was certainly a majestic creature, that’s for sure.
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