THE WOMAN WHO LOVES GIRAFFES

Directing: B
Writing: B
Cinematography: B+
Editing: B+

Perhaps one day, a few decades from now when many of our favorite animals will have inevitably gone extinct, a narrative film will be made about Anne Innis Dagg, the “Jane Goodall of giraffes.” Giraffes on the Savanna, or whatever.

For now, we have the documentary about her, written and directed by longtime stunt coordinator Alison Reid, in her feature documentary debut. From the point of view of those who love giraffes, it’s too bad this particular animal is not as “sexy” as gorillas or tigers or elephants—they just don’t get as much attention. Maybe because they don’t have the regal appeal or the hominid sympathies of other animals. Giraffes, by comparison, are a gangly, goofy animal. It says something that the film is only playing for two days at the Siff Film Center theatre. By the time you read this (if anyone is even bothering to read this), it will no longer be in theaters.

Not that it commands attention in a theater, honestly. If you care about the threats against animal species facing extinction, take a note of this title: The Woman Who Loves Giraffes. Surely it will be available streaming on one platform or another soon enough.

This is not just about the animals, though, of course. It’s about—you guessed it!—the woman who loves them, Anne Innis Dagg. And her story is indeed a fascinating one: she traveled to Africa to study wildlife before Jane Goodall did, and wrote what was for decades the only reliable or comprehensive book on the subject of giraffes in 1976. She shortly thereafter dropped from widespread academic attention, having been denied tenure by a sexist university system in Canada. This particular struggle gets focused attention in the documentary, a sort of feminist detour during which Dagg published several other books on women’s issues.

But, in the early 21st century, Dagg experienced a sort of renaissance, having been invited to a conference comprised of many giraffe experts who regarded her seminal 1976 book as the “Bible” for giraffe studies. Thus, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes becomes a nice tale of struggle and renewal.

Dagg, for her part, has a particularly winning personality, which makes for a lot of nice interview footage. She seems full of life and hope, even now in her eighties. She’s clearly just generally pleasant to be around, and her passion is infectious, especially for animal lovers. I’m not sure it’s so much so for those who are a little more indifferent to these issues. If anyone wants a bit of sensationalism, I guess I could mention there is one scene in which Dagg speaks to a man while he is literally shoulder-deep into a pregnant giraffe’s vagina.

The bummer of it all, really, is that, well, the world is on fire right now. This movie ends with the requisite insistence that “you can help” and the organizations that need support, but, this is not going to be especially high on anyone’s priority list right now. The most dire needs are policy changes at the federal level, not just in the U.S. but in the 21 African countries where wild giraffe exists. Good luck with that!

As ever with documentaries of this sort, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes makes a point of what’s still possible, how these animals could be saved if just enough people do the right thing. Unfortunately, I left this movie thinking about how we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Or render extinct, as the case may be.

Someone tell me where these guys buy their mascara!

Overall: B