"Capucine" takes us from Alsace, France, to the Research Center on Animal Language in Osumi, Japan, following the development of an experiment ten years in the making: the ¼dipe project, a study on how to transmit cinematographic language and codes to capuchin monkeys. One of the more talented specimens, Capucine, could be considered the first simian director in filmmaking history! The documentary follows the project’s evolution and goes behind the scenes of Capucine’s short film "¼dipe", which will also be screened during Offscreen. Using high-tech equipment, this little monkey constructs a short film out of pre-existing footage that has been made available in a database containing several million archived and indexed video files. All the equipment was ergonomically designed for use by primates. Capucine simply had to react to her imagination’s desires, resulting in a surprising mix where "A Trip to the Moon" by George Méliès meets scenes from the Donkey Kong arcade game by S. Miyamoto.
Note: A similar project was recently launched with chimpanzees in Great Britain, undoubtedly inspired by professor Yamamoto’s work: http://chimpcam.com
