Following a recent theatrical run and sold-out film festival screenings across Canada – including being selected as the opening film for the 2018/2019 season of Hot Docs’ Doc Soup series – the critically acclaimed Crave Original Documentary THE WOMAN WHO LOVES GIRAFFES begins streaming on International Women’s Day, Friday, March 8, before its world television premiere on Crave that evening at 7:30 p.m. ET.
THE WOMAN WHO LOVES GIRAFFES re-traces the trail-blazing journey of Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, who in 1956, at only 23 years old, became the first person in the world to study the behaviour of an animal in the wild, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas. The documentary offers an intimate account of her life as a young woman, juxtaposed with a first-hand look at the devastating reality that giraffes are facing today and the forces that brought her back at a time when the giraffe world needs her most.
The film also explores the insurmountable barriers Dagg faced in Canada as a female biologist whose research findings ultimately became the foundation for many scientists following in her footsteps. Though her pioneering efforts were groundbreaking, upon her return to Canada, her career was destroyed when she applied for tenure at the University of Guelph and was denied. It was the catalyst that transformed Dagg into a feminist activist.
The film’s impact also led to the University issuing a rare apology to Dagg earlier this month, delivered by Dr. Jonathan Newman, Dean of the College of Biological Science (CBS), which “recognized and confronted errors of the past” and confirmed that the University has become a “more respectful, diverse, and equitable place to work” since that time. Dr. Newman also announced the creation of the Dr. Anne Innis Dagg Summer Research Scholarship in “recognition of her pioneering research on, and significant contributions to, the study of giraffe,” to be awarded annually to one female undergraduate student majoring in either Zoology or Biodoversity.
The film joins Crave’s Leading Women Collection which includes female-driven titles like KILLING EVE, VEEP, INSECURE, BIG LITTLE LIES, MY BRILLIANT FRIEND, THE HANDMAID’S TALE, JANE FONDA: IN FIVE ACTS, and more. It will also join Crave’s incomparable Documentaries Collection which features more than 500 titles including Canadian films YOU ARE HERE: A COME FROM AWAY STORY and RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD, plus critically acclaimed features from HBO and SHOWTIME, and more.
