Dec 19, 2016
John Rubin Accepting 2008 Peabody Award for “Ape Genius”
Ape Genius has the requisite beauty of good nature documentaries, but it has much more: philosophical questions explored through multiple scientific techniques and critically examined by filmmaker John Rubin. The large question posed here is: what is it, intrinsically, to be human? The scientific discoveries made clear here show us that apes indeed have creative intellect, language and problem-solving skills. The difference between us and them, as revealed in a series of revelatory experiments, is that humans explicitly teach each other, so that each generation builds on the last. Apes do not.
Read full winner’s citation here: http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/ape-genius
