DVD
Koko : a talking gorilla
Edition
Full screen version.
Languages
In English; optional French narration; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Performers
Koko, Penny Patterson, Carl Pribram, Saul Kitchener, Roger Fouts; English narration, Michael Graham.
Publication Information
[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, c2006.
Physical Description
1 videodisc (80 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (28 p. : ill. ; 19 cm.)
Audience
Not rated.
Summary
Koko, a Talking Gorilla is a documentary from 1978 that observes a zoo-born female gorilla in the fifth year of an experiment in human-simian communications. Dr. Penny Patterson has taught Koko hundreds of sign-language words in American Sign Language. Observing Koko's daily routine, her responses, her rejection of a new yellow sweater for her worn older red one, and her initiation of new subjects in conversation prompts more questions than it answers. What separates man from animal? The ability to construct a society, to speak, or to understand complex thought? No matter the conclusions, the film remains a compelling document of a fascinating experiment.
Notes
Originally produced as a French documentary film in 1978.
Special features: Barbet Schroeder [featurette] (11 min.). Booklet includes essays "Barbet and Koko: An equivocal love affair" by Gary Indiana and "This large, black animal" by Marguerite Duras.
Contents
- Preface/Opening credits
- Exile
- Penny and Koko
- Red sweater
- Acquisition of signs
- Michael
- Feelings
- White, American, Protestant gorilla
- Controversy
- Breeding
- Koko's computer
- Just a gorilla?
- Part of nature
- Color bars.