The Five Smartest Things Said at the Cannes Distribution Panel – indieWIRE

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Project Nim

21 January, 2011 | By Anthony Kaufman

Dir: James Marsh. UK. 2011. 93mins

James Marsh’s Project Nim is every bit as engrossing, though not as crowd-pleasing, as his previous hit documentary, the Oscar-winner Man On Wire. In this chronicle of “Nim Chimpsky,” a chimpanzee raised as a human child in the 1970s, Marsh trades in the high-flying tension of daredevil stunts for the high-stakes emotional terrain of animal rights and scientific hubris.

Seamlessly blending subtle reenactments with ample archival footage.

Prior to the film’s opening night slot in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition, HBO Documentary Films acquired all US theatrical, video and broadcast rights to the film; the channel will most definitely find a theatrical partner Stateside. Based on Marsh’s track record and the eminently intriguing subject matter, Nim should find select theatrical activity and solid TV play in other territories.

Seamlessly blending subtle reenactments with ample archival footage, Marsh lets the story unfold chronologically, beginning in 1973 when Nim was taken from his birth mother by Columbia University professor Herb Terrace, and brought into the Upper West Side brownstone of Stephanie Lafarge, a former psychology student with a large family who attempts to teach Nim sign language.