NEED TO KNOW
- Jane Goodall, who died at 91, appears in a new documentary about friend Patrick McCollum called The Man Who Saves The World?
- Goodall says the first time she really spoke to McCollum was at the U.N., where he told her the story of his “World Peace Violin”
- McCollum intends to make sure “her voice will continue on”
Jane Goodall was as humble as they come, even to the end, a close friend tells PEOPLE.
“A couple of years ago, I asked her, ‘Is there anything that you wish was different?’ ” says Patrick McCollum, who knew Goodall for decades.
McCollum recalls how the celebrated conservationist, famous for how she changed the way humans view animals with her groundbreaking research of chimpanzees in the Tanzanian wild, replied, simply, “I always hoped I could really make a difference — but I haven’t gotten there yet.”
“I mean, this is Jane Goodall, right?” says McCollum, a 75-year-old reverend and “dedicated peacemaker,” according to his eponymous foundation.
Goodall died at 91 of natural causes in her sleep in Los Angeles during her speaking tour, the Jane Goodall Institute announced on Oct. 1.
“It’s a very sad thing,” McCollum says. “It’s still very difficult for me.” They had made plans to meet again the day after she died.
Still, Goodall appears in a new documentary about McCollum, The Man Who Saves The World?”
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Written, directed and produced by Gabe Polksy, the doc tells the unorthodox story of McCollum’s journey to fulfill what he believes is an ancient prophecy to unite the tribes of South America so they can save the Amazon rainforest and the planet from environmental ruin.
“I can honestly say Patrick is one of the most extraordinary and inspirational people I have had the good fortune to know and count as a true friend,” Goodall says in the film.
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In an outtake, Goodall says the first time she really spoke to McCollum was at the U.N., where he told her the story of his “World Peace Violin,” a symbolic instrument which his organization describes as a “metaphor for both the beauty and diversity of our planet and for the successful integration of its religions, cultures, and people.”
“He asked me if I would, I think he said, bless it, touch it, which other people had touched from all over. So that was when I first began to think this is an interesting person,” Goodall says.
Speaking with PEOPLE, McCollum says that early in their friendship, she came to California, where he lives, so she could start a Roots & Shoots program there as part of her institute.
When she found herself in need of a lift, he stepped in: “I had a four-wheel drive pickup, and we ended up taking a back route over the mountains and talking.”
The two, he says, had many things in common. More than anything, though, “We really thought of nature as being sacred and that it should be treated that way. And much of the world runs in a different realm than that, where it’s about, ‘Hey, how much money can we make by cutting these trees down or killing these animals or doing these things?’ She worried about the next generation.”
McCollum says that as their friendship deepened, they began talking over Zoom calls and emailing back and forth regularly.
“Very quickly we both came to understand that each of us did really major work in the world and had a lot of weight on us and couldn’t really talk to other people about it,” he says.
Whenever the two got together in person, they would sip on whiskey and “toast the things we have succeeded at,” he says.
“The last time I spoke with her, she said, ‘I’m going to be in Los Angeles,’ ” he says. “I was originally planning to meet her for that drink and she said, ‘I really worry it’ll be our last one.’ I ended up staying in New York longer than I originally expected, but she passed away the night before we were going to get together. And so I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
Goodall had one last wish for McCollum, regarding his violin, he says.
“It has been blessed hands on by over a million people,” he says. “In India, it was immersed in the Ganges River with a hundred million people present, praying for peace.”
“Jane wanted some of her ashes in that violin,” he says. “And so she left me some of her ashes, which I will put in the violin so her voice will continue on.”
“The Man Who Saves The World? opened in L.A. at the Laemmle Monica Film Center on Friday, Oct. 17, and will open in New York City on Friday, Oct. 24, with a nationwide theatrical release and special event screenings to follow.