IWFF: The Road to 50: Koko, A Talking Gorilla

The Road to 50 series will occur monthly from now until the 50th International Wildlife Film Festival in April. Each month, we'll be highlighting one of the most influential films of its decade from a scientific deep dive into the mind of the most famous primate on Earth, to a tragic tale of the blurred line between man and the wilderness, to an experimental comedy about invasive amphibians.
In 1978, acclaimed director Barbet Schroeder entered the universe of the world’s most famous primate to create the captivating documentary 'Koko: A Talking Gorilla.'
The film introduces us to Koko soon after she was brought from the San Francisco Zoo to Stanford University by Dr. Penny Patterson for a controversial experiment she would be taught the basics of human communication through American Sign Language.