“Project Nim” (2011) is a British documentary film directed by James Marsh focusing on a research project commenced in the early 1970s to determine whether a primate socialized by humans could communicate using a language based on American Sign Language. The subject of the experiment was a chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky, who was taken from his mother at birth and adopted by a human family in a brownstone on the upper West Side of New York. Project Nim documents Nim’s challenges throughout his forced immersion in human society and the lasting impact he makes on the people in his life.

Watch the full film on Kanopy here.