Saying Anne Innis Dagg is to giraffes as Jane Goodall is to chimpanzees is pretty obvious. Then again, Dagg got started in 1956, 4 years before Goodall.
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes profiles Dagg's interest in giraffes since the age of 3 when the Canadian visited Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago and saw giraffes.
20 years later, she made a solo trip to South Africa. The documentary said she was the second person on the planet to do this kind of animal study.
Dagg switched from zoology to feminism after being denied tenure at the University of Guelph. She wrote the ultimate book on giraffes and also authored books on feminism and being denied opportunity.
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes give Dagg a chance to relive some of those great memories in Fleur de Lys in eastern South Africa. The film helps her meet people who were inspired by her research.
Director Alison Reid tells Dagg's story through letters. Tatiana Maslany provides the voice for Anne in her early years. Victor Garber provides the voice for Alex Matthew, the South African rancher who was vital in getting her set up to study giraffes. Dagg provides her own voice to the film.
The film takes a key chapter in Dagg's battle at the University of Guelph and University of Waterloo. Despite her excellent, literally groundbreaking work, the University of Guelph dean denied her tenure. The dean at the University of Waterloo told Anne that he would never give tenure to a married woman.;
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The Woman Who Loves Giraffes tells an amazing Canadian story that young people might be reluctant to believe. Redemption for Dagg is a key theme. There is a joy to watching Dagg back in the terrain where she got her start. She even talks about how she got some things wrong early in her process. Science is a lot about trial and error, especially when you are a groundbreaker.
Her Fleur de Lys return is worth watching the documentary. There is so much more to her journey.
video credit: YouTube/The Woman Who Loves Giraffes
photo credit: The Woman Who Loves Giraffes film
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