"Project Nim" is a documentary about a chimp taken from his mother just days after birth and used for a now famous research study to see if a chimp living with humans could learn sign language and communicate in sentences. The chimp, "Nim" did learn sign language and put together sentences, though at first the lead researcher concluded he was communicating but later retracted. During the study, Nim lived with and was taught by the researcher and a group of students but when the researcher decided to wrap the study Nim was suddenly thrust from his life of living as a human and dropped into a habitat for other chimps. Having not been around other chimps, Nim had trouble adapting but formed a bond with a young man who would later champion better treatment for Nim. From that point Nim's life took a bad turn as he was sold to a research group doing medical experiments on chimps but eventually he landed at an animal refuge but he didn't always thrive there.
This movie is really well-done. Thanks to all the archival footage of Nim's life, much of it from his time in the sign language research study, there is a clear picture painted with interviews by principle players interwoven. Clear ethical issues emerge throughout the film. First, the research study seems to have been run by a faculty member and his gang of students, many of whom were his lovers, which begs the question of how "scientific" was this study to begin with. Second, there's clearly the issue of taking a chimp and raising it to be human when Nim was clearly a wild animal. Following raising Nim as a human and not allowing him to be an animal then as soon as the research was done this poor animal was dumped at a chimp facility where he was expected to be a chimp. Clearly the medical research done on Nim and his fellow chimps also raises issues on animal research. It's a little hard to watch at times, but this film is really captivating and raises important issues about animals and research. Give this one a chance - B+.
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