1 Nov 2006
Award-winning filmmaker Allison Argo takes us behind the scenes of the film Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History.
This web exclusive video features the filmmaker discussing her motivation and some of the challenges she faced while filming. Argo is the writer, director, producer and narrator of the film.
In 1959, the United States Air Force captured dozens of baby chimpanzees in Africa, transporting them to Alamogordo, New Mexico where they and their offspring were enlisted into in the space program.
Billy Jo is one of the chimpanzees featured in the program. View this video to see why he has been described as one of the “emotionally complex chimps.”
Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History premieres on November 5, 2006 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).
Johanna Clearfield, Director urban wildlife.... said,
November 11, 2006 @ 11:25 pm
I live and work in NYC and rescue pigeons in my spare time. People find it either ridiculous or pathetic or odd. I watch as the throngs of New York pedestrians shuffle past starving, injured and/or gloriously marked and awesome pigeons every single day. “Rats with wings” have no value in an urban setting, or possibly in any setting. I press on with rescues every day and try to make a difference in at least the few dozen pigeons who have crossed my path.
Your recent (Nature: Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History) documentary on PBS was absolutely stunning. I sobbed (as I imagine and hope many others did as well) at the finish of the film as Tommy climbed his tree. I daily grieve for all the suffering two-leggeds have inflicted and continue to inflict on animals. Humans are inexcusably cruel and I am confused how some of them (you, for example) manage to be otherwise.
Highest regards,
Johanna Clearfield, Director
Urban Wildlife Coalition - NYC
http://satyamag.com/aug05/clearfield.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/urban_wildlife_coalition_NYC/
Brooklyn, NY
cell: 347 526 7100
Carolyn Hartley said,
November 12, 2006 @ 3:01 pm
We loved the film. Where in Canada are the Islands located? We are interested in learning more about these wonderful animals. Carolyn and Patrick Hartley
Gina said,
November 12, 2006 @ 10:18 pm
Thank you for reading the Zayko blog!
We (Zayko) created the website www.ReleaseChimps.org (Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in US Laboratories), but not the above mentioned documentary. For more information about the film please visit: http://www.pbs.org/previews/nature-chimps/.
For more information on chimpanzees in the US or Canada and to learn how you can change the fate of Gwen, Susie, Wenka, Cheeta, Billy Ray, Julius, Flo, Maxine, Harriet, and many more still in the labs, please visit the following websites:
www.ReleaseChimps.org – Project R&R (Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in US Laboratories) is a project of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
www.FaunaSanctuary.org – Fauna Foundation (Outside Montreal, Canada)
Thank you again. The animals desperately need your support.
–Gina (Zayko)
Mike Westfall said,
November 21, 2006 @ 9:54 pm
looking for a way to email allison argo. does anyone have it?
Claudia said,
November 23, 2006 @ 8:33 pm
Hello!
I’m from Guatemala and I was so lucky to be in Miami at the time of “An Unnatural History’s” premiere on Nov. 5th.
I just want to say first, even though I’m from a 3rd. world country, I WAS SHOCKED to see this things happening in a 1st world country!!
The documentary is so well done , you get into the emotions of those chimpanzees and the life they had to live not by their choice, but by HUMANS CHOICE!
Please promote this documentary on Cable TV, so people worldwide could be able to learn about these amazing chimpanzees, spread the word and joint the cause ending chimpanzee research
Kate Aitken said,
June 4, 2007 @ 1:23 am
It was really wonderful to see Nature: Wisdom of The Wild tonight on OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting). Not only was it a wonderful program that touched me so much that I found myself in tears through much of it.
It was also lovely to hear Allison’s voice as narrator. My maiden name is Kathy Gallant and I knew Allison and her entire family when we all were growing up in Orleans, MA (Cape Cod). I always knew that she would go places. I remember when she studied acting in London.
Anyway, as I say it was wonderful listening to her tell such a amazing stories. What a lovely feeling to know that someone you knew as a small child has done so well for themselves.
Kate Aitken
Dr. Elena Cainas said,
August 23, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
Hello and thanks for giving us the oppotunity to learn once more about the human impact on wildlife. I just went through the amazing stories of so many chimps following the interesting film of Allison Argo. Couldn’t see the whole material, but it was enough to feel bad for whatever we humans have done to these animals, but with the hope that not evrything is lost, and there are many people trying to save what we still can enjoy today for the future generations.
As a WWF, and National Geographic Society member and in my role as instructor of new generations I think that everyone involved in the protection of the wildlife has to spread the information around the world, and then we will get more and more people motivated and interested in saving our wildlife: from the baby seals in the cold pole, to the chimps in the tropical forests.
Congratulations to all of you that made this possible.
Dr. Elena Cainas