Project Nim and my project

This past weekend I was privileged to attend some of the films showing at the True/False film festival here in Columbia. Among them was Project Nim, reviewed here (http://www.movieline.com/2011/01/project-nim-opens-sundance-proves-life-stranger-than-fiction.php). Unlike at Sundance (as mentioned in the review), we gave a standing ovation, particularly when we saw Nim's best caretaker/rescuer was there at the screening.

Project Nim tells the story of Nim Chimsky, a chimpanzee taken from his mother and raised by humans as part of a communication experiment in the 1970s. He learns sign language, and does indeed communicate with the humans working with him. But their own foibles, including an inability to foresee that their primate charge would soon be too physically strong for them to handle, leads to tragedy, as Nim is passed off to an increasingly grim set of prisons/laboratories. It was a stark commentary on the callous instrumentality with which humans can treat animals, at the same time that it was a fascinating look at the thought processes and emotions of one of our closest evolutionary relatives.

Maxwell asks how I will propose to speak with the voice of the animals (or ecosystem) in my semester project, and it is a good question! The proponents of biosemiotics, particularly those interested in inter-species communication, have been struggling with this issue for some time. We need to be careful of the tendency to anthropomorphize, but we also need to be aware that the traditional idea of a clear dividing line between human and animal is simply not tenable. The goal, I believe, is to see how the animal(s) can speak with their own voices, which may look very different from the way humans communicate.

I admit that I was always fascinated with animals like Nim (anyone else remember Koko the gorilla, who was also taught sign language?), but that this movie made me realize that, as fascinating as such a communication study might be, it is at far too great a cost to the animal(s). We in the U.S. currently still imprison 1200-1500 primates for experimentation, while the E.U. has outlawed such a practice. It needs to stop here too!!!

Maybe my project can contribute in some way to that cause, as I look at the way the voice of animals was portrayed in the Proposition B fight here in Missouri. But after this weekend, I wonder if the best way to contribute is to tell stories truthfully and powerfully by becoming a documentary filmmaker!