Le Projet Nim

OK, so the idea going in to this film is we take a a baby chimp and test the nature versus nurture theory. Trying to see if we can "correct" their deficiency in human communication, if you will...

What instead results is indeed a spectacle to witness. Nim is indeed a remarkable chimp who was sadly the victim of human inexperience with supplying the type of care he needed and deserved. What we learn is not what a chimpanzee is lacking, but what humanity is.

I suggest watching the film with a mind towards what Nim himself must be thinking as you see his life unfold. Nim lives a chimpanzee's analog to a human life, but for a chimp, it is utterly horrifying to watch. But like any life, there are more lighthearted moments as well, such as Nim and his friend Bob with their "Stone." "Smoke." "Now." time together, which actually seemed to be Nim's best time with any humans.

All in all, this documentary of Nim's life serves as a reminder that mother nature made chimpanzees and humans their own devices for communicating and living separately. The two cannot co-exist peacefully within one habitat due to the gap in strength and cognitive intelligence. However this one chimp, Nim, came remarkably close to peaceful co-habitation and viable communication with humans and his cost for such was great.

Imagine this. A baby is taken from her mother without her consent. The baby is reared in a Manhattan upper class household environment for five years, and then is taken away to live with someone else. Much later on, the baby, now a young man, is returned to a home for other orphaned children.

This is roughly the sequence of events that befell a chimpanzee named NIM, and is the subject of a haunting and disturbing documentary by James Marsh, who made "Man On Wire."

Behavioural scientist Herbert Terrace at Columbia University in New York, believed that as 98.7% of the DNA in humans and chimpanzees is identical, he wanted to conduct an experiment by having a chimp raised in a human family and taught to communicate using American Sign Language. And thereby disprove the foremost authority on linguistics, Noam Chomsky, whose theory was that only humans have language. Herbert Terrace called his experiment "Project NIM."

At three or so months old, a chimp is like a small puppy – frisky, playful, and much, much more destructive. Fully grown, a male chimp can grow up to 1.7 metres and weigh up to 70 kilos. They are very, very strong, and have a high level of aggression. In one scene, NIM becomes frightened and angry, and it took four strong men to subdue him.

The project was conducted in the early seventies, not long after the phenomenon of Woodstock and at the tail end of the Hippie Movement. The first family, who took on the responsibility to raise NIM, were totally unprepared for the impact NIM would have on their lives. To say they were overwhelmed is an under-statement. Eventually, it got all too much for them, and NIM was transferred to a huge house set in large grounds outside New York, that Herbert Terrace thought might be a more suitable location to conduct his experiment.

Eventually, even after NIM showed he could 'understand' sign language, Herbert Terrace finally admitted defeat. "Project NIM" was not the success he had hoped for, and the project is abandoned.

"Project NIM" was not so much about a how intelligent chimps are, but how conceited we are to think that we can mould a chimp into acting and communicating like we do.

This James Marsh (Man on Wire) documentary examines the life of Nim Chimpsky who was raised in 70s as an experiment to show chimps can think like man. They taught him to sign, and raised him as a child with a human family. At first, it's hailed as a success. But he soon became too powerful to handle and more and more he is institutionalized. The professor finally ends the experiment sending Nim to a medical research facility. The film interviews all those people who interacted with Nim.

Sure it has a fascinating subject in the chimp Nim, but the more fascinating subjects are the humans who inhabit his life. From the professor who never saw Nim as any more than a subject. To the family who yearn to reconnect with him. And finally people who would rescue him from isolation. The camera really turns away from the animal back to all of us as a species.

This documentary from James Marsh - director of 'The Theory of Everything' - focuses on another curious chapter in twentieth century science as a baby chimpanzee was raised in a human household in the 1970s with the hope of it learning to communicate. Named Nim Chimpsky (after famed linguist Noam Chomsky), the chimp would go on to learn and use sign language, but as he grew older and scientists became wary of his dangerous strength, Nim would eventually end up abandoned and displaced. Focusing on the cruelty of removing Nim from his mother in the first few minutes, Marsh's agenda is obvious from early on as the film sets out to question ethical responsibilities in scientist research. This agenda becomes even more pronounced in the second half of the movie, however, there is nothing especially enlightening in terms of how inhumane scientific research can be. The first stretch of the film is utterly fascinating though as the scientists wax poetic about communicating with animals and as we see Nim's progress. Misguided as the scientists involved with Nim were, their ideas and goals are intriguing and as a documentary, 'Project Nim' might have played out better with their intentions in focus. Yes, the real story is with the horrors that Nim faced in post-experiment years, but it may have been interesting to learn more about those who were so cavalier with his life.

Ostensibly a documentary about the world's most famous chimpanzee, who was taught to communicate with humans via sign language during a university experiment of the 1970s, PROJECT NIM is in fact about human failings. It's another nature-themed documentary that, along with the likes of BLACKFISH and THE COVE, makes you despair for mankind.

The story starts out well, with the impossibly cute baby chimp brought up as a human. Soon, though, the behaviour of some of the "scientists" looking after Nim begins to grate; some of them are a little too involved with their subject, while others are plain creepy. Later, Nim suffers a huge betrayal, and at this point the documentary takes a downward turn into one of the most depressing ever.

Hardly a heartwarming story then, in that it focuses on misery and despair for the majority of the running time, but nevertheless an important story that serves to highlight man's inhumanity towards the world he inhabits.