The Ark continues Thursday, May 25. British director Mike Leigh brought our attention to a marvelous cinéma-verité filmmaker, Molly Dineen. The "Ark in the Park" is Regent's Park Zoo in London, founded in 1822 and acclaimed world-wide for its scientific research. Recently The Ark has come nose to nose with a predator: the political animal, loose in the non-profit sector. In a market economy, even zoo animals, if they can't pay their own way, can be let go. This fascinating documentary draws us into a drama of our times, of new management versus old creativity, of overburdened staffs and drooping standards; of, as Episode 1 is titled, "Survival of the Fittest" in the cultural sphere. The keepers are the first to go: management wants people who are good with the public, not the animals. In Episode 2, "Natural Selection," it's the animals' turn to be judged by similar standards. Meanwhile, back at the Zoological Society, revolt is in the air. "Dineen takes her place in the company of Jonathan Swift, George Orwell...artists who invoked animals to play human dramas" (Independent, London).