Nim Chimpsky was the name given to a chimpanzee, the subject of a communication study conducted by a Columbia University professor and his students in the 1970s where Nim was raised like a human child. Marsh (Man on Wire) and his team revisit the study through old footage—and some clumsy reenactment—tracing what happened to Nim afterwards. But his documentary is much more about humans than the chimp, and it’s an indictment of how unthinkingly cruel we can be as a species. At best, with one or two exceptions, the people who had contact with Nim come off as painfully selfish and naive, though some now have regrets about how they behaved—just count how many times “power” is mentioned in light of social interaction. This is affecting stuff for anyone with a shred of empathy.
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2012.