Jane's Journey

In 1960, naïve 23-year-old Jane Goodall sailed from London to Kenya with a pencil, a notebook, and a playful determination to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. She had no university degree but, through observation and dedication, would become the best-known primatologist of our time. Long before Dian Fossey, Goodall realized that chimps weren't just capable of using tools, but also of making them—a discovery that astonished paleontologist Louis Leakey. Married twice, then widowed, Goodall raised her son, Hugo van Lawick, in Africa. Then in 1986, after attending an environmental conference, Goodall's life took an abrupt turn toward global humanitarianism, leading to her traveling 300 days a year to lecture and promote various conservation efforts, particularly her Roots & Shoots projects, aimed at teaching young people in 120 countries how to live in peace and harmony with the natural world. Utilizing archival footage, filmmaker Lorenz Knauer traces Goodall's journey from Bournemouth, England—where her father gave her a stuffed toy monkey—to her continuing work in Tanzania, following her around the globe as she carries a message of hope. From a Congolese refugee camp to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to Greenland's glaciers, Goodall continually stresses how Earth's future lies with children. Tall, slender, and possessing an incandescent smile, the indefatigable Dr. Goodall is a natural communicator, graciously accepting tributes from Angelina Jolie, Pierce Brosnan, and the U.N.'s Kofi Annan, among others, in this intriguing, inspirational profile. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an interview with Angelina Jolie (6 min.), info on Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program (4 min.), a text bio of filmmaker Lorenz Knauer, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a solid doc.] (S. Granger)