Unlocking the Cage review – exemplary animal rights documentary

New York-based attorney and law professor Steven M Wise is the founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project, an organisation dedicated to changing the status of certain animals, particularly apes and other creatures with advanced cognitive abilities, so that they are seen as people, not things. This crisply compiled factual work tracks him and his associates over the course of several years as they file lawsuits and argue in the courts to emancipate three chimpanzees in particular from what they consider to be unsuitable, even cruel environments. The subtle but fascinating legal points raised revolve around the interpretation of habeas corpus, precedents involving slavery and legal notions of personhood and competency. The potential is there for turning this material into something dry and excessively detail-driven or, alternatively, hectoring and sentimental about animal rights. Instead, veteran directors Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker steer just the right course (together they made Only the Strong Survive and The War Room, but Pennebaker’s filmography is even more illustrious, encompassing the immortal Bob Dylan doc, Don’t Look Back), producing an exemplary piece of documentary storytelling. It’s only a shame that it remains a bit aesthetically televisual, and that the story doesn’t yet have a conclusive ending since the cases are still ongoing.