Primate Vision: Monkey or Man?

Now that apes rule multiplexes following the back-to-back-to-back releases of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Monkey Man, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Roxy Cinema will lend its own screen to the examination of the human-primate evolutionary connection. Following up on the 2017 Anthology Film Archives series Simian Vérité — an in-depth investigation of chimps on cinema — Primate Vision: Monkey or Man? looks at the contested territory between the end of ape and origin of man through multiple films that investigate the distinction between animal behavior and human society. Bringing titles like Ernest B. Schoedsack’s Pre-Code monster flick Son of Kong  (1933) in conversation with Michel Gondry’s lab-room farce Human Nature (2001), this program aims to make audiences think about their distance, or proximity, with their genetic predecessors. 

Programmed by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer and Steve Macfarlane.