''Project Nim'' is a 2011

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by James Marsh.

Summary

It focuses on

Project Nim Neam "Nim" Chimpsky (November 19, 1973 – March 10, 2000) was a chimpanzee and the subject of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University. The project was led by Herbert S. Terrace with the linguistic analysis head ...

, a research project that was mounted in the 1970s to determine whether a primate raised in close contact with humans could develop a limited "language" based on

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

. The project was centred on a

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

named

Nim Chimpsky Neam "Nim" Chimpsky (November 19, 1973 – March 10, 2000) was a chimpanzee and the subject of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University. The project was led by Herbert S. Terrace with the linguistic analysis head ...

Release

The film was first publicly shown during the

2011 Sundance Film Festival The 27th annual Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20, 2011 until January 30, 2011 in Park City, Utah, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival opened with five screenings, one from each c ...

, and then released for public exhibition on 8 July 2011.

Controversy

In 2019, Herbert S. Terrace, who led the research on Nim, published the book ''Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can''. There, he explained how he perceived the documentary ''Project Nim'' as "mainly an ad hominem attack" on himself. Terrace stated that the allegation that he had returned Nim to the primate colony as punishment for his failing to learn sign language is untrue. Besides, Terrace criticised how the documentary represented a "complete failure to present the scientific background of the work" done and "its theoretical significance."

Reception and awards

''Project Nim'' was released to critical acclaim. The film has received an aggregated score of 97% from 147 reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, with an average rank of 8.1/10. The sites consensus reads "Equal parts hilarious, poignant, and heartbreaking, Project Nim not only tells a compelling story masterfully, but also raises the flag on the darker side of human nature". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 83 out of a 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". David Rooney of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised the film for its "haunting life story" which according to him shows "an exquisite example of non-fiction filmmaking" that can develop into " full-bodied, emotionally complex drama". Marjorie Baumgarten of ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'' was of a different view, as she wrote that "there is no question Nim was exploited for human gain, yet there are important aspects which Marsh leaves unexplored". The film has won 15 and was nominated for 27 awards, including Best Documentary at the

65th British Academy Film Awards The 65th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 12 February 2012 at the Royal Opera House in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2011. The nominations were announced on 17 January 2012 by ...

Home media

The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

was released on 7 February 2012 by

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...

References

External links

*
''Project Nim''
at Red Box Films * {{Great ape language 2011 documentary films 2011 films Documentary films about animal rights British documentary films Roadside Attractions films Films about apes American documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s British films