SAMPLE: Ecology
Film Science: Questions for: Gorillas In the Mist

Background: Are you passionate about some cause or idea? Do you feel comfortable showing it?

1. What basic question did Dr. Louis Leakey feel a study of the mountain gorillas might help answer?

2. What did Dian Fossey feel was her main qualification for a job with Dr. Leaky?

3. a) Did Dian seem to have an understanding of the lifestyle challenges facing her?

b) What is the evidence nights are cold at the Virunga Volcano research station?

4. How did Dian and Sembagare misunderstand each other about gorilla knowledge?

5. What advice did George Schaller's book offer if one were charged by a gorilla?

6. How did Moise Tshombe's rebel activities in the Congo affect her research?

7. Around the cottage at their Rwandan compound, Ross Carr and his wife tried to recreate the look of what country?

8. As Dian and her group resume their research on the Rwandan side of the mountain range, we see the gorillas prefer ground with what degree of slope? what vegetation density?

9. What does Dr. Leakey think initially of Dian's research methods?

10. When Dian and Sembagare discovered the Batwa poachers' secret burial ground, what did each think about: a) the talismans in the tree branches b) the stones encircling the graves.

11. What is Dian's reaction to Bob Campbell's stories of his animal encounters?

12. What does Bob help her understand about the power of gorilla pictures?

13. Bob is completely stunned to see Digit resting his hand in Dian's. What did this event reveal to him about her commitment?

14. By times, we see Dian consumed by her interest in the gorillas. Has she lost interest in humans?

15. The poachers thought Dian was a witch. How did she use this to her advantage when she and her helpers caught the child poacher?

16. Why did Dian find Claude Van Vecten's activities repulsive?

17. Does Mukara, the Interior Minister, understand the plight of the gorillas?

18. When Bob finally takes another assignment, where does Dian go to shed her tears?

19. a) What is the basic difference in the attitudes of Dian and her student researchers toward gorillas?

b) How is this evident as they witness her treatment of the poachers?

20. Later, in the emotional scene in her cabin, what does she reveal to Sembagare is the cause of her outbursts against him, her devoted workers and the researchers she has just fired?

21. Why does Dian refer repeatedly to the gorillas and the mountain as "hers"?

22. Dian payed the ultimate price in the crash between what opposing attitudes?

23. In the closing scene, how does Sembagare reveal his deep understanding of Dian's life?