Fans of all ages go ape for conservationist
Most of the crowd has filed into the Vogue Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 17, for the first of two packed screenings of “Jane,” Brett Morgen’s Oscar shortlisted documentary about Jane Goodall and her groundbreaking study of chimpanzees, when the subject herself arrives. A dedicated group has clustered on the sidewalk, awaiting her. They greet the 83-year-old Goodall as if she is a rock star, some even approaching her with things to sign. She is gracious to all, but especially the children, engaging each one and leaving her pint-sized fans dazzled.
“I was actually thinking about becoming a cheetah conservationist and studying them. It’s cool to find a famous person that has a connection with that,” says Lorenzo Cohen, 7, stepping away from Goodall.
“I read a lot of cool books about her, and she has a really cool job,” adds his brother,
Joaquin, 10.
That cool job has kept Goodall in the air and on the road for more than 30 years now, ever since she stepped away from her field work at Gombe, Tanzania, and into advocacy for her beloved chimps and conservation. She is rarely in one place for very long. San Francisco is another pit stop, one she reached after a flight from Malaysia.
“I went to bed when I should have been getting up and got up when I should have been going to bed,” she says, settling down for a chat before the screening.
“Jane” opened in the Bay Area in October and, aside from the special screenings at the Vogue, is still playing in theaters. When the film made its Los Angeles premiere on Oct. 9 with a live orchestra performing Philip Glass’ score, it sold out all 17,000 seats at the Hollywood Bowl. (During the Q&A at the Vogue, Morgen reveals that Glass told him the heretofore biggest Bowl crowd he ever played for was 7,000 people.) When the documentary premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it received a sevenminute standing ovation, the first time Goodall and Morgen realized that they had collaborated on something other people regarded as truly special.
Ironic, considering neither subject nor filmmaker initially wanted to make the film.
“The National Geographic wanting to make yet another documentary, same old footage that was used in 1963 and 1965. I thought, ‘No, come on,’ ” says Goodall.
“I had a similar feeling when I was approached, which was, ‘Haven’t there been a lot of films about Jane?’ ” says Morgen, whose work includes the Oscar-nominated “On the Ropes,” “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” and “Cobain: Montage of Heck.”
But “Jane” would not be made from that same old footage. The National Geographic had in its vaults more than 100 hours of footage shot by Goodall’s late ex-husband, wildlife cinematographer Hugo van Lawick. That and Goodall’s book “In the Shadow of Man” sparked Morgen’s imagination. A planned three-hour interview with her at her home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, turned into three days as he peppered her with questions about her early days in Gombe, how Louis Leakey hired her as a secretary and picked her for an extraordinary assignment, and how the project and her personal life (once van Lawick joined her on his own National Geographic assignment) evolved over the years.
As Morgen’s passion for the project grew, so did Goodall’s, now happy to be on hand to promote “Jane.”
That passion has been rewarded with the lines that snake around the block of the Vogue. Goodall is a draw.
“She’s always been my hero,” says Denise McEvoy. “I’ve always been interested in animals, and chimps are dear to my heart.”
Behind McEvoy in line, two little girls, sisters, bounce up and down with excitement.
“This is one of those fun documentaries,” says Joey Carlson, 10. “It’s not one of those documentaries that are all about how sausages are made.”
Even Brad Bird, director of “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille” as well as the live-action Tom Cruise vehicle “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” seems starstruck. Moderating the Q&A after the screening, he holds Mr. H, the stuffed monkey Goodall carries with her on her travels. When he hands it back to her, he calls it a chimp. She points out the difference. (Monkeys have tails.)
“I’ve just been corrected by Jane Goodall! That’s on my bucket list,” Bird says.