Netflix Documentary A Gorilla Story Revisits David Attenborough's 1976 Gorilla Encounter

A new Netflix documentary titled A Gorilla Story, releasing globally on April 17, will investigate the iconic 1976 moment when a baby gorilla named Pablo interacted with David Attenborough in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park. The film is part of centenary celebrations for Attenborough, who turns 100 next month. Directed by Oscar winner James Reed and produced by Emmy-winning veteran Alastair Fothergill of Silverback Films, the documentary weaves contemporary and archival footage, narrated by Attenborough himself with excerpts from his 1978 journals. The original encounter occurred while filming the BBC and PBS series Life on Earth, when Attenborough walked into a gorilla family and was briefly accepted as one of their own. Producer Alastair Fothergill calls it "the most famous sequence in the whole of wildlife filmmaking" that "changed how the world saw gorillas." The documentary will reveal what happened to Pablo and the rest of the gorilla group, featuring extraordinary behavior never before filmed. Attenborough later recalled how the baby gorilla started taking off his shoes during the unscripted moment, which became more memorable than planned commentary about primate evolution. The film is produced by Silverback Films.