THE world-famous ape expert Jane Goodall was at a Bournemouth screening of an acclaimed film about her work on the same day it was nominated for a BAFTA award.

Dr Goodall took part in a live question and answer session at the Odeon cinema, at a special screening of the film Jane.

It was announced that day that the movie was up for the best documentary title at the BAFTA awards, marking the first nomination at the awards for its producer National Geographic.

Dr Goodall, 83, grew up on Bournemouth’s West Cliff. She attended the special screening with her son Hugo Eric Louis, popularly known as Grub, who features in the film.

The film drew on more than 100 hours of unseen footage that has been in the National Geographic archives for more than 50 years.

Director Brett Morgen told how Dr Goodall’s research into chimpanzees as a young woman revolutionised our understanding of the natural world, challenging the male-dominated scientific consensus of the time.

“At the time, I wanted to do things which men and women didn’t,” she said.

Set to a score by composer Philip Glass, the film depicts Dr Goodall as a trailblazer who defied the odds to become one of the world’s most admired conservationists.

The film’s story starts in 1960, when the 26-year-old Jane arrived in a remote area of north western Tanzania to study chimpanzees.

Driven by her love of animals but lacking formal training, she challenges conventional research methods with her unique approach to wildlife observation.

After patiently gaining the animals’ trust, she makes headlines with the discovery that chimps are highly intelligent and social creatures who use tools to gather food.

When the Dutch film-maker Hugo van Lawick is sent to document her work in 1964, the pair fall in love, marry and have a child. But Jane is shaken when her chimpanzees succumb to an outbreak of polio and engage in a brutal war.

Brett Morgen used Hugo van Lawick’s wildlife footage, together with interviews with Dr Goodall, to create his portrait of the world-renowned conservationist.

The film had its premiere in front of 15,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles last November.