Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks to People

This documentary chronicles the remarkable journey of Koko, the world’s only gorilla known to ‘speak,’ and her enduring connection with Penny Patterson. Initially conceived as a PhD project aimed at teaching sign language to a young gorilla, Project Koko evolved as Koko began to communicate with Penny, leading to a profound relationship between them. Penny has spent over four decades with Koko, asserting that Koko offers new perspectives on animal cognition. Every moment of Koko’s extraordinary life with Penny has been captured on film, with more than 2,000 hours of footage documenting pivotal events—such as Penny’s struggle to prevent Koko’s return to her birth zoo, her confrontations with skeptical academics, and the poignant scene of Koko grieving her kitten’s death.