The Descent of Nim: Motherhood and Maltreatment in Project Nim

In the 1970s, a groundbreaking study sought to measure the linguistic and intellectual gap between human and non-human primates by raising a chimp as though he were a human child – only to conclude that he was just a chimp after all. But Eva Birch suggests that documentary Project Nim (2011), about Nim Chimpsky's fascinating and disturbing life, demonstrates more about the nature of humanity than the original researchers cared to notice.