Jane's Journey
At the age of ten, Jane Goodall knew that she wanted to become a primitologist. Born in England, her home today is in the Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in Tanzania where she began her research nearly fifty years ago. She returns there each year to enjoy the company of the chimpanzees for whom she became famous.
The documentary, Jane's Journey by filmmaker Lorenze Knauer, is rather like a biography of Goodall who is now 77 years of age. There are flashbacks to her childhood, film showing her work with Chimpanzees, her first marriage to Hugo Van Lawick which ended in divorce, and her marriage to Derek Bryceson. That marriage, unfortunately, ended five years later when he succumbed to cancer. Later in the film, Jane's son Hugo, better known as Grub) from her marriage to Van Lawick offers comments regarding his mother.
Perhaps the basic reason for this film being made was to extol Goodall's life today. Nearly 25 years ago, she gave up her career to devote her entire time and energy in order to "save our endangered planet." She now spends 300 days each year traveling to many countries around the world speaking on behalf of her organization, the Jane Goodall Institute, in hopes of reaching out to everyone to stress the importance of wildlife and animal conservation.
Watching this film, one can't help but admire this lady and her strong constitution for hard work and constant travel. She has made many friends throughout the world and deserves much credit for what she has and is working to achieve.
Jane's Journey is written and directed by Lorenz Knauer and runs approximately 111 minutes. Playing now at Los Angeles' Laemmle Monica 4.