Programme 3

Frederick Wiseman

United States, English, 1974, 105 min

Towards the end of Primate a man of science paraphrases another, now dead and acclaimed, declaring that “all useless research is useful”. The previous ninety five minutes, however, invite the entertainment of doubts: Useful for whom? Do the researched count? Or how much uselessness is utilitarianism allowed? Or, even, where does science end, where does superstition begin? At the Yerkes Primate Research Center, human primates and non-human primates coexist. The latter are the former’s object of study and they are kept in cages, hostages of our questions (the eternal question regarding the origin of humanity) and of our problems (the circumstantial problem of artificial insemination). Gorillas, orangutans, baboons, chimpanzees, Rhesus macaques, squirrel monkeys: we recognise non-human primates and at the same time they are almost aliens, black figures against a white background, creatures without a world, creatures that have been dispossessed, to be precise, of their world. But, oh, these aliens take things in their hands and look at the camera just as a small child would, holding its gaze, without duplicity. It is their similarity to us that determines their death and, worse still, their life too. The vivisection of a squirrel monkey is no more unbearable than the death row of the squirrel monkeys. Above all, for the monkeys themselves. Let us thank Frederick Wiseman for researching the researchers and for, once again, poking his nose into other people’s business and delivering us this endless source of thought and feelings. Though he is not the only one deserving of thanks. Where does the “Rh” in Rh factor come from, for instance? That’s right.