Koko: A Talking Gorilla [Criterion Collection]

Barbet Schroeder

Overview

Penny Patterson, an American psychology student, began an experiment in primate communication in the early 1970s using a young zoo gorilla named Koko, who was loaned to Penny for the experiment. Due to a philosophical predisposition to consider that "humanizing" animals is wrong, and alarmed at the increasing publicity over the experiments, the zoo took back the gorilla, which by then had learned over three hundred signs and showed, to many observers, an almost human comprehension of her condition. This French documentary explores the experiments, the circumstances of Koko's being withdrawn from them, and the question of the gorilla's "civil rights," if any.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/11/2006
UPC:	0715515018722
Original Release:	1978
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:20:00
Sales rank:	23,378

Special Features

New, restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Barbet Schroeder; New video interview with Schroeder; Alternate French-language audio track with optional English subtitles; Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; Plus: a new essay by critic Gary Indiana and an home to Koko from Marguerite Duras

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Koko: A Talking Gorilla
1. Preface/Opening Credits [4:35]
2. Exile [7:34]
3. Penny and Koko [10:57]
4. The Red Sweater [11:25]
5. Acquisition of Signs [7:21]
6. Michael [3:36]
7. Feelings [12:59]
8. White, American, Protestant Gorilla [3:37]
9. Controversy [3:18]
10. Breeding [2:18]
11. Koko's Computer [4:07]
12. Just a Gorilla? [3:26]
13. A Part of Nature [5:23]
14. Color Bars [:00]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Koko: A Talking Gorilla
   Play the Movie
   Chapters
   Barbet Schroeder
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   French Soundtrack
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      Subtitles: On/Off