On Location peels again the curtain on a few of your favourite movies, tv reveals, and extra. This time, we ask the place Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough was shot.
When Life on Earth first aired on the BBC in 1979, it was groundbreaking. Not only for the revolutionary content material, however for showcasing the true energy of nature documentaries. In the 13-part collection, David Attenborough took his viewers to greater than 100 areas world wide, introducing the world to new species, ideas, and horizons.
One of essentially the most highly effective moments was in episode 12, titled Life in the Trees. David and his team arrange camp in Rwanda’s Virunga volcanoes, spending time with a household of mountain gorillas. The jaw-dropping scene includes a younger gorilla named Pablo, who climbed and commenced grooming David as he introduced to the digital camera. It immediately grew to become some of the memorable moments in documentary filmmaking—unscripted, fascinating, never-before-seen content material. “There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than any other animal I know,” David said as the cameras rolled. “It appears very unfair that man ought to have chosen the gorilla as an emblem of all that’s violent and fearsome, when actually, it’s a peaceful and mild creature.”
And now, just shy of 50 years later, the inimitable nature presenter is taking audiences right back to where it all began. For Netflix’s new documentary film, Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough, we head back to Rwanda to spend time with the new gorilla families and troops living there today. This time, the film is led by director James Reed, best known for My Octopus Teacher (2020), along with assistant producer Amy Thompson (Life on Our Planet, 2023) and executive producer Alastair Fothergill, a long-time collaborator and friend of David—with the series narrated by the legend himself.
We caught up with the team to find out more about the process of working with the gorillas, shooting in the ground, and, of course, working with Sir David Attenborough to make it all come to life.
(*50*)Tell us how the movie first took place. What made you need to revisit the unique story?
Alastair Fothergill: The sequence of David with the gorilla in Life on Earth is arguably essentially the most well-known sequence in wildlife filmmaking. David believes it is crucial sequence he has ever performed. Pablo grew up to be essentially the most profitable gorilla ever in Rwanda. He died about 10 years in the past, however the group that we went to movie for this documentary have been all his direct descendants. Once we have been there, we knew we might filmed some fairly superb habits—we’ve primarily discovered the parallel story of the unique Pablo, informed by David Attenborough, practically 50 years later.