Project Nim

Project Nim
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: James Marsh (IMDB)

I feel like I say this a lot, but this is one of the films I really wanted to check out last year but never got too. Not enough time in the day I guess. I loved Man On Wire and I was definitely excited to see what James Marsh had in store for this documentary.

Project Nim follows Nim, a chimp raised since birth by humans, and trained in sign language for an experiment back in the 70's.

Fuck it, I normally don't change my best of lists after I've made them, but this is getting added to my #1 for documentaries. This film is so well put together, the direction is flawless. Marsh's use of archival footage, reenactments, and interviews transitions together so smoothly and reminds me of something by Errol Morris. This is a very stylized documentary, which are my favorite kind. Nim's story is extremely interesting and it's interesting to see the failures of the people in charge of him. I felt like if he was placed in more capable hands, the results could have been a lot better. This was just released on DVD, but not blu-ray (fail), and I would highly recommend you check it out.