“The Woman Who Loves Giraffes" at the Figge Art Museum -- February 4.
Sunday, February 4, 3 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
A fascinating and inspiring documentary about the world’s first known “giraffologist," The Woman Who Loves Giraffes will enjoy a February 4 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum as the third presentation in River Action's 2024 QC Environmental Film Series, this beautiful nature exploration a Best Documentary and Audience Award recipient at the Sonoma International Film Festival, as well as the Best Feature Film winner at the Global Science Film Festival.
In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas – in fact, before anyone, man or woman had made such a trip – 23-year-old Canadian biologist Anne Innis Dagg made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to become the first person in the world to study animal behavior in the wild on that continent. When she returned home a year later armed with ground-breaking research, the insurmountable barriers she faced as a female scientist proved much harder to overcome. In 1972, having published 20 research papers as an assistant professor of zoology at University of Guelph, the Dean of the university denied her tenure. She also couldn’t apply to the University of Waterloo because the Dean there told Anne that he would never give tenure to a married woman. This was the catalyst that transformed Anne into a feminist activist.
For three decades, Anne Innis Dagg was absent from the giraffe world until 2010 when she was not merely brought back to into the fold, but finally celebrated for her work. And in 2018's The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, an older (then 85), wiser Anne takes the filmmakers, and their eventual audiences, on her first expedition back to Africa to retrace where her trail-blazing journey began more than half a century ago. By retracing her original steps, and with letters and stunning, original 16mm film footage, Anne offers an intimate window into her life as a young woman, juxtaposed with a firsthand look at the devastating reality that giraffes are facing today. Both the world’s first "giraffologist," whose research findings ultimately became the foundation for many scientists following in her footsteps, and the species she loves have each experienced triumphs as well as nasty battle scars. The Woman Who Loves Giraffes gives viewers a moving perspective on both. The film is directed by Alison Reid, and features among its voice-over cast Emmy and Tony Award nominee Victor Garber and Orphan Black's Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany.
The Woman Who Loves will be shown in the Figge Art Museum's John Deere Auditorium on February 4, admission to the 3 p.m. screening is $7 with students admitted free, and more information on the 2024 QC Environmental Film Series is available by calling (563)322-2926 and visiting RiverAction.org/filmseries.
