Project Nim poster

Project Nim( 2011)

TV-MADocumentary
68%
User
Score

The world will be a different place once you've seen it through his eyes.

Overview

From the team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature - and indeed our own - is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.

    Top Billed Cast

    1. cast image

      Bob Angelini

      Lab Tech

    2. cast image

      Bern Cohen

      Dr. William Lemmon

    3. cast image

      Reagan Leonard

      Stephanie LaFarge

    4. cast image

      Nim Chimpsky

      Self (archive footage)

    5. cast image

      Stephanie LaFarge

      Self

    6. cast image

      Herbert Terrace

      Self

    7. cast image

      Wer LaFarge

      Self (archive footage)

    8. cast image

      Jenny Lee

      Self

    9. cast image

      Laura-Ann Petitto

      Self

    10. cast image

      Bill Tynan

      Self

    11. cast image

      Joyce Butler

      Self

    12. cast image

      Renne Falitz

      Self

    13. cast image

      Bob Ingersoll

      Self

    14. cast image

      Alyce Moore

      Self

    15. cast image

      James Mahoney

      Self (as Dr. James Mahoney)

    16. cast image

      Henry Herrmann

      Self

    17. cast image

      Cleveland Amory

      Self (archive footage)

    18. cast image

      Marion Probst

      Self

    19. cast image

      Chris Byrne

      Self

    20. cast image

      Anna May Marsh

      Signing Girl: re-enactment unit

    21. cast image

      Sarah Sakaan

      Renee Falitz: re-enactment unit

    22. cast image

      Dennis Lauricella

      Beefy Guy: re-enactment unit

    23. cast image

      Robert Nesi

      Beefy Guy: re-enactment unit (as Robert J. Nesi)

    24. cast image

      Scarlett Bermingham

      Laura-Ann Petitto: re-enactment unit

    25. cast image

      Mike Devoe

      Mike Devoe

    26. cast image

      Michael S. LePera

      Wer LaFarge: re-enactment unit (as Michael LePera)

    27. cast image

      Peter Elliott

      Nim Cimpsky - Reenactment Unit (uncredited)

    Social

    Review 1Discussion

    A review by CinemaSerf

    7
    Written by CinemaSerf on Thu Jun 05 2025
    Now I know that hindsight is a marvellous thing, but quite how anyone could ever have thought that playing God with another animate creature like this would ever be justifiable is beyond me. The scientists here may have been well meaning enough, but I don’t see how the writing on the wall could ever have been different for the chimp whom they called “Nim Chimpsky”. Wrested from his mother at birth, he is “adopted” like some sort of surrogate child by a group who are trying to prove that with a good deal of nurturing, they can teach him how to speak. They offer “Nim” all the trappings of family ...

    Media

    Videos 1Backdrops 2Posters 4

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    Facts

    Status

    Released

    Original Language

    English

    Budget

    -

    Revenue

    -

    Keywords

    • love of animals
    • wild animal
    • chimpanzee
    • linguistics