Koko: A Talking Gorilla

The Cable That Changed the World

August 2024 •English

The first transatlantic communications cable, traversing the ocean floor from Valentia Island, County Kerry, to Newfoundland, Canada, 165 years ago was an 8 year endeavor that helped lay the foundation of the modern technology industry and explains the fragility of undersea cables today.

Sanctuary

January 2017 •English

Donkeys inhabit and communicate with each other - and the filmmakers - in a Sanctuary.

Stuart Hall: Representation & the Media

January 1997 •English

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall offers an extended meditation on representation. Moving beyond the accuracy or inaccuracy of specific representations, Hall argues that the process of representation itself constitutes the very world it aims to represent, and explores how the shared language of a culture, its signs and images, provides a conceptual roadmap that gives meaning to the world rather than simply reflecting it. Hall's concern throughout is the centrality of culture to the shaping of our collective perceptions, and how the dynamics of media representation reproduce forms of symbolic power.

Virunga

November 2014 •English

Virunga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Africa’s oldest national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, and a contested ground among insurgencies seeking to topple the government that see untold profits in the land. Among this ongoing power struggle, Virunga also happens to be the last natural habitat for the critically endangered mountain gorilla. The only thing standing in the way of the forces closing in around the gorillas: a handful of passionate park rangers and journalists fighting to secure the park’s borders and expose the corruption of its enemies. Filled with shocking footage, and anchored by the surprisingly deep and gentle characters of the gorillas themselves, Virunga is a galvanizing call to action around an ongoing political and environmental crisis in the Congo.

The Brave Class

June 2017 •Spanish

Three college students start a social experiment to prove that reality changes according to the words we use to describe it. Through research, activist actions, and artistic interventions, they analyze the importance of language in the way we understand the world. The documentary includes analysis from more than 20 international experts and leaders in the fields of political communication and information.

Regard Silence

July 2023 •Spanish

“I love poetry because it makes me feel like my mind expands.” In Regard Silence, that's the very first sentence expressed—in sign language of course. Watching the poems signed by deaf people in this film has a similarly mind-expanding effect. That’s because sign language—the Mexican version in this case—is a very different means of communication than written or spoken language.

The World at Arm's Length

December 2018 •German

Sven has a dream. Once in his life he wants to walk the Camino de Santiago - the Way of St. James. But that seems impossible, Sven has Usher syndrome, a disease which slowly, inexorably robs him of hearing and vision. Profoundly deaf and completely blind since 2010, he can only communicate using a special hearing aid in the spoken language.

Lucy the Human Chimp

April 2021 •English

The profound story of Lucy Temerlin, a female chimpanzee raised as human from birth in a domestic environment, and Janis Carter, the woman who took on the seemingly impossible task of giving her a new life in the wild.

Never a Backward Step

January 1966 •English

This feature documentary is a profile of Canadian press tycoon Roy Thomson, whose single-minded attention to business brought him riches, power, and even a baronetcy in England. A native of Timmins, Ontario, Thomson had a tremendous career as publisher, television magnate, financier, and owner of many newspapers, including leading London dailies. The film is a frank study of an equally frank man.

Mountain Gorilla

March 1992 •English

Mountain Gorilla takes us to a remote range of volcanic mountains in Africa, described by those who have been there as ""one of the most beautiful places in the world"", and home to the few hundred remaining mountain gorillas. In spending a day with a gorilla family in the mountain forest, audiences will be captivated by these intelligent and curious animals, as they eat, sleep, play and interact with each other. Although gorillas have been much-maligned in our popular culture, viewers will finally ""meet the legend"" face to face, and learn about their uncertain future.

Checkpoint Zoo

June 2024 •English

Checkpoint Zoo documents a daring rescue led by a heroic team of zookeepers and volunteers, who risked their lives to save thousands of animals trapped in a zoo behind enemy lines in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

Mysore

June 1940 •English

Two sides of Mysore: down to earth with the field workers and an Indian spectacle for the Maharaja.

The Invisible Zoo

February 2024 •German

Across the seasons, the film gives an account of life and work and the animals and visitors at Zurich Zoo, an institution that is one of the leading zoological gardens in Europe. Animals in their cages, humans in the cinema. What lies between them?

Poto and Cabengo

March 1980 •English

Documentary by Jean-Pierre Gorin about twin girls who spontaneously developed their own unique language as children.

The Tuba Thieves

March 2024 •English

A spate of robberies in Southern California schools had an oddly specific target: tubas. In this work of creative nonfiction, d/Deaf first-time feature director Alison O’Daniel presents the impact of these crimes from an unexpected angle. The film unfolds mimicking a game of telephone, where sound’s feeble transmissibility is proven as the story bends and weaves to human interpretation and miscommunication. The result is a stunning contribution to cinematic language. O’Daniel has developed a syntax of deafness that offers a complex, overlaid, surprising new texture, which offers a dimensional experience of deafness and reorients the audience auditorily in an unfamiliar and exhilarating way.

SORDOS

January 2020 •English

Experimental Short Film Documentary made during the social outbreak, follows 2 Deaf people walking through the outbreak in Plaza Dignidad.

Night on Earth: Shot in the Dark

January 2020 •English

This look behind the scenes shows how worldwide camera crews climbed, dived and froze to capture the documentary's groundbreaking night footage.

Boca Fechada

October 2021 •Portuguese

Silverback

January 2024 •English

Feature-length documentary following award-winning wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet as he documents a gruelling but vital mission to ‘habituate’ a notoriously protective 450lb silverback, in a last-ditch effort to save the critically endangered eastern lowland gorillas from extinction.

Alpine Zoos and You

July 2020 •English

This moving, family documentary goes behind the scenes at The Big Bear Alpine Zoo, which is only one of two high elevation, Alpine Zoos in the United States.