(Koko, le gorille qui parle)Directed by Barbet Schroeder
1978/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired – you quit when the gorilla is tired. — Robert Strauss
A fascinating documentary about a gorilla who learned to use sign language, and more broadly, man’s relationship to animals.
Koko was born at the San Francisco Zoo and lived there until she was one year old. She became ill and was then cared for by Stanford University researcher Penny Patterson who undertook to teach her American Sign Language.
She eventually learned over 1,000 signs and understood more than 2,000 words of spoken English. She put together primitive sentences and created new words by combining signs she already knew. She lived to be 48 years old and was quite the celebrity.
The subject matter is interesting on it’s own is even more interesting for the questions it raises. What are the ethics of removing an animal from its own kind? What are the ethics of training an animal to be “human”? How much of the communication arose from Patterson’s subjective interpretation? Recommended.
That looks like a sweet movie though.
And it is, really.
My family discovered Koko’s story in the 1990s and this movie helped launch my daughter’s study in primates and linguistics. It’s amazing the influence one movie can have!
I thought I answered you the other day but no. I love knowing that about your daughter. Did she have a chance to work one-on-one with primates? I have a slight phobia of them. They are smart and so extremely strong!
She never did work with primates, however, we read and viewed widely in animal communication as part of our home schooling curriculum. Her interest in linguistics was eventually channeled into modern languages and linguistic theory (humans).