REVIEW: ‘Jane’ is a great doco about Jane Goodall, the best mate a primate could ever have ...

REVIEW: Pioneering primatologist Jane Goodall has been the subject of several documentaries throughout her long, prominent and unique career. This new one, ‘Jane’, is clearly the best.

Scene from the documentary Jane (2017). A National Geographic Production Gombe, Tanzania - "Flint" peeks into a tent at Jane Goodall.

JANE (PG)

Rating: four stars (4 out of 5)

Director: Brett Morgen (Cobain: Montage of Heck)

Starring: Jane Goodall.

Reconnecting with her first missing links

Pioneering primatologist Jane Goodall has been the subject of several documentaries throughout her long, prominent and unique career.

However, this new one from National Geographic’s prestige production unit is clearly the best to date.

Scene from the documentary Jane (2017). A National Geographic Production Gombe, Tanzania - David Greybeard was the first chimp to lose his fear of Jane, eventually coming to her camp to steal bananas and allowing Jane to touch and groom him. As the film JANE depicts, Jane and the other Gombe researchers later discontinued feeding and touching the wild chimps.

Accomplished director Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) zeroes in on the remarkable first phase of Goodall’s odyssey as an explorer of both our own species and our closest known relatives in the animal kingdom.

Via a stack of evocative footage screened for the first time, we meet Goodall in her late 20s, embarking on an ambitious research project in the wilds of Tanzania.

Despite having no scientific background to speak of, Goodall was determined to earn the trust of a community of chimpanzees and chronicle their daily lives as intuitive social beings.

Her interactions with the chimps evolve in sophistication and directness of expression over time, and there are moments captured here that border on the truly miraculous.

Scene from the documentary Jane (2017). A National Geographic Production Gombe, Tanzania - Jane formed a close bond with young Fifi. As the film "Jane" depicts, Jane and the other Gombe researchers later discontinued feeding and touching the wild chimps.

What emerges subtly, yet tellingly, is that Goodall’s rare grace and humanity unlocked a door to a greater understanding that few could ever have even partially achieved.

Includes a wonderful, sweeping music score by composer Philip Glass.

Jane is now showing for a limited season at selected Village and Event Cinemas nationwide, and also ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square (VIC).

Scene from the documentary Jane (2017). A National Geographic Production Gombe, Tanzania - Jane Goodall and infant chimpanzee Flint reach out to touch each other's hands. Flint was the first infant born at Gombe after Jane arrived. With him she had a great opportunity to study chimp development—and to have physical contact, which is no longer deemed appropriate with chimps in the wild.

Originally published as REVIEW: ‘Jane’ is a great doco about Jane Goodall, the best mate a primate could ever have ...