Investigating Tarzan is a 1997

1997 in film

-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...

 Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 written and directed by Alain d 'Aix for InformAction Films to investigate the history and cultural impact of the character of Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

 and the books and films in which the character was depicted.

Background

The documentary features interviews with Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...

' grandson Danton Burroughs, Tarzan film actors Denny Miller

Denny Miller

Denny Scott Miller is an American actor, perhaps best known for his guest-starring roles on Gilligan's Island and as Tarzan in the late 1950s....

 and Gordon Scott

Gordon Scott

Gordon Scott was an American film and television actor known for his portrayal of the fictional character Tarzan in five films of the Tarzan film series from 1955 to 1960.-Early life, education and military service:He was born Gordon Merrill Werschkul in Portland,...

, Sheena

Sheena (film)

Sheena is a 1984 Columbia Pictures film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.A hybrid of action-adventure and soap opera-style drama, Sheena was shot on location in Kenya...

 film actors Tanya Roberts

Tanya Roberts

Tanya Roberts is an American actress best known for her roles in Charlie's Angels, The Beastmaster, A View to a Kill, Sheena and That '70s Show. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood sex symbol during the early 1980s.- Early life :Blum was born in The Bronx, New York City, of Irish and Jewish descent...

 and France Zobda, Johnny Weissmuller, Jr., primate-specializing actor Peter Elliott, and Edgar Rice Burroughs historian Scott Tracy Griffin, and was filmed on location in Tarzana, California, at the 1996 'Dum Dum', an annual gathering of the Edgar Rice Burroughs' fan society 'The Burroughs Bibliophiles'. Aspects of the Tarzan mystique were discussed, including the racism inherent in Tarzan and other Burroughs novels.

Recognition

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

wrote the film was a "surprisingly thorough survey of the history of Edgar Rice Burroughs' most famous creation," and shared that the film follows the character of Tarzan from his 1912 "birth" in the All-Story Magazine, to his 1918 silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 debut, and through the character's "success in comic books and novels, on radio and television," expanding on how one of the keys to the early success of the Tarzan films was due stock footage in MGM's archives left from the 1929 filming of their 1931 film Trader Horn

Trader Horn (1931 film)

Trader Horn is the first non-documentary film shot on location in Africa. The 1931 movie tells of the adventures of real-life trader and adventurer Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn on safari in Africa. It featured many authentic shots of African wildlife and a great deal of inauthentic plot. It was...

allowing access to "cheap jungle footage".

Awards and Nominations

• 1997, Gémeaux Awards nomination for 'Meilleur documentaire d'auteur'
• 1998, Won Bronze award at WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival
• 1998, Gemini Award
  Gemini Award
  The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
  
   nomination for 'Best Performing Arts Program or Series, or Arts Documentary Program'

External links

• Investigating Tarzan at the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...