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It had to come to this. Now monkeys – sorry, chimpanzees – are making their own documentaries.
Well, that’s not entirely correct, but that’s the angle by which tomorrow’s BBC special The Chimpcam Project](http://chimpcam.com/chimpcam) is being reported by most media. The reality is that the doc is about a behavioral scientist, though it does feature footage shot solely by 11 chimps from the Edinburgh Zoo. And the producer who gave them the smash-proof cameras is now looking to put other kinds of animals in the director’s chair as well.
I wish I could say I find the idea fascinating, or even adorable. But honestly, I haven’t been this annoyed about the implied ease of documentary filmmaking since Jonathan Caouette made every young wannabe think they can and therefore should make a film about themselves with his very cheap and very self-indulgent Sundance hit* Tarnation* (which can now be seen, in parts, on YouTube, where it belongs).
Just because you can make a documentary doesn’t mean you should make one. And just because someone seems like a good subject for a documentary doesn’t mean he or she should be one. For example, the new documentary Off and Running](Off and Running (2009) - Movie | Moviefone) is about a black teenager raised by two white lesbians – along with their other adopted children – who seeks out her birth mother. Sounds like a great subject for a film, but this particular doc, directed by Nicole Opper, is actually quite dull and pointless.