The documentary Project Nim tells the extraordinary story of a chimpanzee that was taught a human language – American Sign Language. In a remarkable and compelling journey, the chimp Nim is first placed as a baby with a human hippie family and then at a university-owned country estate and at college laboratories. Amazingly, he learns to use an ASL vocabulary – not just responding to commands, but initiating communication and forming sentences. Then, the experiment ends, and he is off to an assortment of post-placements, some terrifying.
Along the way, we hear from the motley assortment of humans involved in his raising, his exploitation and his care. One human who enters the story as a grad student, Bob Ingersoll, emerges as the hero of the story. It’s the story of a chimp, but we learn more about the foibles of humans.
Acclaimed documentarian James Marsh (Man on Wire) delivers another great story – one of the 2011’s best documentaries. Project Nim can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.