15 Most Powerful Documentaries Of The Decade (So Far)

5. Project Nim

If any subject matter is likely to tug at our heartstrings it's animals and our interaction with them. Few are as moving as Project Nim, which tells the story of the groundbreaking research into chimpanzee communication. The project in question sought to examine the possibility of teaching Nim to communicate with people, based on the premise that raising him as a human child would alter the way in which nurture affected his communication development. As Project Nim unfolds it soon becomes apparent that the experiment reveals just as much about human behaviour as it does about our closest ancestors in the animal kingdom. Director James Marsh, whose credits include the excellent documentary Man On Wire, marshals the material into a fascinating study of behaviour and the heartbreaking way in which Nim was exploited and mistreated.