Last night I was able to attend a film screening of the National Geographic/Brett Morgan film, Jane. It was being offered to colleges and universities and our uni library jumped at the chance. The film is comprised of over 100 hours of 16mm footage from the early 1960s; footage that had been believed lost. It's woven together with orchestra music, montages of her actual diaries, and an interview with Goodall about the footage. The viewing was on short notice as the information didn't really get out about it, via Facebook, until a week before, though there was a good turn out. I'm not certain if the colleges who were showing it needed to show it on the same date and at the same time, but it seemed like it, because it is Spring Break and the library was staying open three hours later just because of this event. It was shared and being hosted by a friend of mine. I knew that she earned her degree in Library Sciences and I knew that she'd been working for this university library (there are two) for while now, but only that night did I realize that she was in charge of sciences; so all books and library lectures directly related to any and all sciences. So cool! You would think I would know this, but I do not see her that often, and when I do we're talking about other things. We have family friends that my family met when they were in their first few years or marriage and my sister was three or four. I, however, have known them all my life. The oldest son's wife is this friend of whom I speak. So, this was being offered to universities and the first 500 applicants would receive a package of things from National Geographic. I'm not sure what the stipulations were for this prize package; as in if it should be shared with the viewers or not, as she didn't say, but she did give away the contents. Except for the accompanying CD (though I'm not sure what it contained) and the October 2017 issue of the magazine (pictured above), which she's retaining for the library which seems completely appropriate. My number was not chosen for any of the other things, but that's fine. I got to see a friend and watch a film on someone I know little about. I'm taking an excerpt from Smithsonian's article about the film here. These are the kind of intimate details in store for viewers of Jane, a new documentary on Goodall composed of 140 hours of 16mm recordings that had been tucked away in the archives of National Geographic for over 50 years. Wildlife videographer Hugo van Lawick, who later became Goodall’s husband, shot the footage in the early 1960s for a National Geographic documentary. But after it was spliced and diced, the remainder of the footage sat forgotten in the archives—until now. Though the film does state certain things at the beginning, with text on the screen, it neglects to tell you more than "the films were believed lost", so it's nice to know that parts were used, and the remnants lost in storage at National Geographic, until they came across them again.
The footage only spans the early sixties, but Jane Goodall stepped foot in Africa in 1957, which she talks about while you're watching footage. She'd always wanted to go to Africa, to live among the animals and know all about them. She had worked as a waitress and saved every penny to afford the trip. She ended up as a research assistant to Dr. Lewis Leaky and started watching Chimpanzees in Gombe (Gombe Stream National Park) in Tanzania in the early 60s. National Geographic funded her expedition and sent along a camera man to document everything; a Baron Hugo van Lawick whom she married a few years later and they had a son whom she affectionately referred to as Grub. Lawick received a new assignment in the Serengeti and some of Goodalls time was spent there with her husband and son. But in the end she couldn't be away from the Chimpanzees at Gombe, so took her son back with her. There is footage from their time in the serengeti and not all of it is pretty, like a seemingly healthy zebra being taken down by a pack of hyena's; one ripping at his nose while the blood flows, the other attacking from the rear and the eventual feeding frenzy. The lions trying to take down the african buffalo, but the herd faces them off with the cats running for cover, so that one was spared though it was still being attacked. Though I knew that Jane Goodall spent time in Africa and time with chimpanzees... that is about all I knew, which is sad because it's a great deal more than that. She had no formal education in sciences when she first went to study them (as per the documentary film) and that is why Leaky tapped her for the job. He wanted someone without any hangups to learn about these animals. The important part is that no one knew anything about chimpanzees before Goodalls work. I hadn't known that. Most of time, in the beginning, was spent searching for them or else watching them through binoculars from a cliff. But on one occasion, while out looking for them, after five months, the lead male took her to all of the chimpanzees. She named him David Greybeard, and named all the other ones as well. After being led to to the group, she would simply sit and watch. She was really close, closer than anyone had ever been, but she still didn't know all about their habits, though she had found that they used tool modification. Stripping the leaves off of tall grasses, in order to stick the blade into a termite hill and come out with their food. One day, upon returning to camp, someone told her that a chimpanzee had entered the encampment, gone into her tent and stolen some bananas. No one knew before this point that chimpanzee's ate bananas. So, she kept having bananas delivered so that the chimpanzees would just come to the camp. At this point in the film, I immediately thought, 'but that's a bad idea, don't you know what their like!?' and then I had to remind myself that no one at this time knew what chimpanzees were like. I only know now because of what I'd be watching on this film; because of Jane Goodall. So, if you are at all aware of chimpanzees, then you'll likely know what's going to happen. First a few stray in during those initial days for bananas. They're grabbing all they can and making off with them. Some are staying and following the trail of bananas to Jane's hand. After awhile though, more and more chimpanzees are arriving at the encampment. Droves of them. Fifty or more. Their fear of humans deminishes and they start stealing and wrecking everything. Then there are fights between the mail chimpanzees for dominance. Then the dominant female, whom she'd named Flo, saunters into camp one day and is, well... ready to make babies. I'm sure it's a scientists dream come true, but I've never been particular in the mating habits of any animals. Simply tell me that they split apart or pollinate themselves, or else that their mating habits are like humans, but I don't need to know every gory detail. Buy scientists do. So, her naked backside is enlarged and that is evident. And then all the male chimpanzees know and well, they film all the male chimps having a go at Flo. I know it's nature, but to me the mating activities of animals are the same as their carnivorous eating habits. I know that hyena's will eat zebra's, but I've never wanted to know exactly how they take one down. It's just never piqued my curiosity. I know scientists want to know all the things, but I'm not that kind of science interested. So, I realize that this all told them that chimpanzees do not pair up for life and that the dominant female is to be used by all the males during her time. It also told them that chimpanzees are kind of crazy, that they like to steal things, and chew on cardboard boxes, and that they get jealous and love bananas. I'm cool with them learning all of that, I just wasn't interested in the mating. But things went from bad to worse and the humans had to build a cage around themselves in order not to be mauled to death by fighting chimpanzees. So, they devised a feeding system. This mechanical trap that they could pull from a distance, so that when a chimp arrived, they'd open it, so that the chimp could have one banana. There was no more fighting for food after that. She became so welcomed amongst the chimpanzees that when Flo had her new baby (and I'm honestly surprised there wasn't footage of the birthing, though I'm sure it wasn't from lack of trying), whom Jane named Flint, she was allowed to play with it when it was a little older and was allowed to groom some of the chimps. By this time in the story, Goodall and Lawick had gotten hitched and come back to Gombe to start up a preserve and have students come and also learn about the chimps. Then Lawick was reassigned to the Serengeti, which is where Goodall had her son, Grub. Devistating news brought Jane back to Gombe. There'd been polio amongst the chimps and it was bad. Some lost the use of an arm, some babies were dead, and one of the dominant males, a fussy one, lost all use of his lower legs. There was footage of him dragging himself around on the ground. He couldn't feed himself and they had to shoot him, because he was starving to death. In the interview, Jane states that she is positive it wasn't their fault. That there was a polio outbreak near the southern border of the chimps domain, and they must have contracted it from there. But according to the documentary, she was gone for at least a year. How does she know it wasn't one of her students? They did learn they could vaccinate the chimpanzees against polio, but it was too late for some in the group. And no one was allowed to touch the chimpanzees ever again. It leads me to believe that it was her team. No one else in Africa goes around touching chimpanzees, and I'm sure the people on the southern border weren't. Who were the odd one's out who were actually touching them and in close contact with them? Jane's team. When she brought her small son back to Gombe with her to stay, she had to put him in a cage, which I found amusing. It was the one built for the group back when the chimps first entered the camp and went crazy. It was really large, but it was still a cage. It's because chimpanzees will eat baby primates. They'll eat their own, and they'll eat other primate babies. Grub is seen as a primate, so the male chimps would have eaten him. It's so there are not too many dominating males within a group. Towards the end of the footage, so I don't know what year, they'd found Flo dead. She'd probably died of a heart attack while crossing the stream. Flint had never really grown up and was still clingly with his mom. When she died, he stopped eating and kept to himself. He died three weeks later. A small group of the chimpanzees decided to move south after Flo's death. The remaining group, tracked them down and killed every single one of them. Jane stated that she had always thought them to be kind and rather like us, and it really shook her up to witness that. It took her a long time to come to terms with it. The interviewer stated something about how Grub must have loved being in Gombe with the chimpanzees, to which Jane replied that he didn't; that he hated the chimps. I feel ya Grub. I mean I don't want anything bad to happen to them and I don't want people just killing them or encrouching on them, and I like that Jane Goodall put the word out there about chimpanzees and wants to save them, but that's the thing. She wants them saved in their natural habitats. I agree with her on that. But I don't want to get to know chimpanzees, I don't want to work with them, I don't want to see them in zoos (I mean they can be if it's a nice place, but I don't want to see them). I just don't care for them, though they have every right to live and make homes in their native jungle lands. I even had a chance to hold a baby chimpanzee once. I declined. It was at the Jackson zoo. My friend was working there at the time so I was able to get a backstage view so to speak. The baby was being taken care of in a building because it couldn't be left with the mother because one of the males would kill it. I always skip seeing the chimpanzees at that zoo, so I wasn't too keen on holding one, even if it was a baby. It was cute, I'll agree, but it could stay in the keepers arms and I could look at it from position at three feet away. It seems weird that I should want to go to this film viewing. Just because I don't want to see chimpanzees or other apes at the zoo or I don't want to work with them or hold them, doesn't mean I'm not interested. It's vintage film, it's Africa, it's about a female scientist, and it's still interesting subject matter, which is why I really wanted to see this. It was worth seeing too. And apparently National Geographic Channel, as well as Nat Geo Wild will be showing it tonight at 8pm. So if you have cable or satellite that pick up either of those channels, I'd suggest watching it. I really do.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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