ACE Eddie Award 2018 · 2 Emmy Wins · 7 Nominations
Jane is a 2017 National Geographic documentary directed by Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, The Kid Stays in the Picture), produced by Deep Cut co-founder James A. Smith and edited by co-founder Joe Beshenkovsky. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017.
Built from over 100 hours of never-before-seen 16mm footage shot by Dutch wildlife cinematographer Hugo van Lawick in Tanzania in the 1960s, the film traces the early years of Jane Goodall's groundbreaking chimpanzee research at Gombe Stream — and the unlikely love story that developed between Goodall and van Lawick in the field. Philip Glass composed an original score for the film.
The film received seven Primetime Emmy nominations and won two Emmy Awards — Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming. Joe Beshenkovsky, Will Znidaric, and Brett Morgen won the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Documentary (Feature) at the 68th ACE Eddie Awards. The film was also Emmy-nominated for Picture Editing and was the most decorated film of that year.
Jane is widely considered one of the most visually stunning nature documentaries ever made, and stands as an exemplar of archive-based storytelling.
"One of the year's best edited films." — RogerEbert.com
"Bolstered by sharp editing and an abundance of fascinating archive footage." — Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus
"A triumph of editing — building a complete and emotionally resonant narrative from footage shot entirely before the filmmakers ever became involved." — Documentary Voters