The Film

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of JANE, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in 1934 in London to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall.

As a child, she was given a lifelike chimpanzee stuffed animal named Jubilee by her father; her fondness for the toy started her early love of animals. Today, the stuffed animal still sits on her dresser in London

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960. Without collegiate training directing her research, Goodall observed things that strict scientific doctrines may have overlooked. 

Instead of numbering the chimpanzees she observed, she gave them names such as Fifi and David Greybeard, and observed them to have unique and individual personalities, an unconventional idea at the time. She found that, “it isn’t only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought and emotions like joy and sorrow.”

She also observed behaviors such as hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and even tickling, what we consider “human” actions. Goodall insists that these gestures are evidence of “the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community, which can persist throughout a life span of more than 50 years.” These findings suggest that similarities between humans and chimpanzees exist in more than genes alone, but can be seen in emotion, intelligence, and family and social relationships.

Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, travelling nearly 300 days a year. Goodall is also a board member for the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida.

“These chimpanzees have given me so much, I knew I had to do something to conserve their environment” JANE GODDALL

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