‘Jane’ travels back to Goodall’s early years with chimps

Using previously unseen footage stored for more than 50 years in National G e o g r a p h i c ’s a rc h ive , “Jane” offers a close-up, extraordinary look at Jane Goodall’s pioneering work with chimpanzees in 1960s Tanzania.

Director Brett Morgen, who s t u f f e d too much ephemera into his 2015 film, “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” uses archival material more judiciously here. From 100-plus hours of footage shot by Goodall’s late ex-husband, acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Hugo van Lawick, Morgen crafted a 90-minute film full of tiny thrills and key discoveries.

“Jane” tracks how Good-

Ball, through infinite patience and no small amount of personal magic, won the trust of chimps that initially fled from her. Once the chimps allowed her near, after months of observing them through binoculars, Goodall found that humans had not cornered the markets on rational thought, emotions or tool-making.

Morgen started with gold, in the Van Lawick footage. Full of vivid greens and sun- backlit wildlife imagery, Van Lawick’s shots are beautifully composed yet not too formal looking, thanks to the warm, grainy quality of 16-millimeter film. “Jane” looks like an old home movie directed by David Lean.

I t i s fun to see Goodall, now 83 and one of the world’s foremost animal rights advocates, when she was still green as a public figure. In the old footage, she often appears too aware of the camera, clearly suppressing grins at moments she should look studious.

The chimps were less self-conscious. Shots of a mother and i nfant are striking in their intimacy. Even with all we know now about chimps, seeing these animals fashion tools from sticks, to retrieve i nsects from a hole, still inspires awe.

Morgen uses a new Goodall i nterview to give the old footage context. Yet “Jane” is lopsided, thoroughly exploring her early career but encapsulating later decades too neatly. This does not make the Tanzania footage less exquisite but keeps “Jane” from being a truly ground-breaking work on its own.