The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Benjamin Bayliss <ctrkgrendel AT yahoo.com>]

This new documentary will air as the season opener for PBS Nature series on Sunday, November 5th  at 8 p.m.    The main focus is biomedical research chimps coming out of labs to the Fauna Foundation in Canada… and to Save the Chimps sanctuary in Ft. Pierce.   But there are also a few minutes about the entertainment chimpanzees and a short visit to the Center for Great Apes.     P.

 

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/10/30/entertainmen

t/e112733S90.DTL

 

By BRIDGET BYRNE, For The Associated Press

 

Monday, October 30, 2006

(10-30) 18:42 PST Pasadena, Calif. (AP) --

 

"Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History" is a program that will probably make

many viewers cry.

 

But Allison Argo felt she had to stay as dry-eyed and clear-sighted as

possible while making this documentary, which she also narrates.

 

It can't have been easy.

 

The documentary, which on Sunday night launches the 25th season of

PBS'"Nature" (see local listings), explores the sad story of generations

of captive chimps - our very genetically close relatives, with almost 99

percent of the same DNA as humans.

 

"I try not to tell people what they should feel or think in the film,"

the filmmaker said.

 

"As I was writing the narration I kept saying, `Just the facts. No

comment. Don't get emotional,' and again when I was reading it, the

same, because you don't need to. Let people decide what they want to

decide. Just present the story, present the characters, which are the

chimps," Argo said.

 

Gloria Grow doesn't have any intention of being objective. Her eyes

often rimmed with tears earlier this year as she accompanied Argo to a

series of press conferences and interviews to discuss the documentary.

 

Grow and her husband, veterinarian Dr. Richard Allan, run the Fauna

Foundation, which has become a haven for abused animals, including

chimps used in biological research. Even chimps that were once people's

pets, or performed to audience laughter in circuses and commercials, can

end up in research facilities. Once they get to about five or six years

old and can no longer be handled safely they are often dumped in medical

laboratories or imprisoned in isolation.

 

Grow's nonprofit foundation, based near Montreal, Canada, is featured in

the documentary.

 

So, too, is Dr. Carole Noon's Save the Chimps group, of which she is

founder and director. The nonprofit central Florida organization works

to create a safe and suitable habitat for chimpanzees, such as those

used in numerous experiments by the United States Air Force, which in

1959 captured dozens of baby chimps in Africa. These naturally social

animals, whose life span in the wild mirrors humans, have long been

locked in separate cages, taken out only to be used in grueling,

dangerous, and painful research, which may or may not ultimately benefit

mankind.

 

One of the chimps featured in the program is Lou, a 42 year old veteran

of the Air Force programs.

 

The documentary is about "the chimps having a voice finally," said Grow.

"Allison Argo was able to speak on their behalf ... about the tragedy of

their lives."

 

The sight of an aged chimp, a victim of years of confinement, trying to

summon up the courage to walk free beneath the sky, is just one of the

many devastatingly emotional moments in Argo's movie.

 

"I'm not a raving animal-rights person, but I do think there is a need

for accountability," said Argo.

 

She understands, she said, there are other points of view than the

animal-lovers' about the use of chimps in research. But the medical

community she tried to have a dialogue with, she said, chose not to

respond.

 

"I couldn't even get the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to grant us

an interview," she said, adding that laboratories can't or won't supply

any detailed records.

 

Argo, who made the Emmy-winning 2000 documentary "The Urban Elephant"

for "Nature," said the film took nearly three years to make, because,

"It's such a complex topic and there are so many hot buttons that it

really needed to be researched thoroughly."

 

Despite all the sadness in the film, Argo feels it can be viewed in a

positive light.

 

"I think that the main thing that gives me hope it that I don't think

people realize what happens. I think people who laugh at the chimps in

the commercials just don't know. The purpose of this film is to just

open the window so that people can look into (the chimps') lives, see

what's on the other side, the dark side, and what the consequences are."

 

 

 

 

 

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