The ultimate non-traditional family: Dad, Mom, Chimp, Chimp. Phil and Roberta are a pair of seemingly normal adults who have chosen to eschew the time-honored method of family building in favor of parenting Charlie and Casey, a pair of female chimpanzees. This arrangement required a few modifications to the home; both chimps and parents play on the ropes and swings which drop down from the ceiling in the den (that is, "den" in the architectural, not the mammalian, sense). There are some marvelously funny sequences here between various members of the family: Dad disciplining the older daughter Charlie (carefully, since she could snap his neck like a twig if she pursued those rebellious teenage urges); Charlie helping Casey remove her roller skates; or the family sitting together looking at a favorite picture book (of apes, not people). Still, filmmaker Flavia Fontes' Living with Chimpanzees fails in two respects: 1) there's no overlying sense of organization to the material (and no real investigative analysis), and 2) the video quality is not much above home video (a genuine disappointment, considering the innate photogenic qualities of the subject). Even so, for $19.95 this is a good optional purchase; especially since Filmakers Library has the same title listed in their catalog with public performance rights for $295. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
Living With Chimpanzees
(1996) 53 min. $19.95. Flavia Fontes (dist. by Tapeworm Video). Color cover. Vol. 12, Issue 2
Living With Chimpanzees
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