It is the doll that was used in the production of the 1976 film "King Kong," directed by John Guillermin. It was found abandoned in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1979.

This documentary, directed by Juan Cruz Varela, is in the work-in-progress stage and tells the story based on real events about how the giant King Kong animatronic doll used to film the 1976 King Kong movie, directed by John Guillermin, was washed up in Argentina during the 1980s and then mysteriously disappeared completely. The matter was so intriguing that an Argentine historian, Fernando Soto Roland, began an investigation based on the accidental discovery of the doll when he was walking through Mar del Plata at the age of 14.

The documentary attempts to retrace the path followed by the mechanical gorilla built by Carlo Rambaldi in the Los Angeles studios until it disappeared in Argentina. Rambaldi's King Kong ultimately turned out to be very expensive, with a cost of 1.7 million dollars, and it was only used for a few rare shots. From the historical perspective of Fernando Roland, the film reconstructs the odyssey that King Kong lived through, based on his book published in 2021 where he manages to figure out the final destination of the famous doll.

The search for style has always been based on the conceptual basis of reconstruction as a pillar of documentary. This is expressed through collage, which provides a sense of construction using various materials. When manipulated, these materials give rise to a new image, capturing the process of reconstructing memory. It is a constant balance between what is invented and what is real, resulting in a somewhat blurred expression.

In the first instance, the boards were created by drawing them to envision the spaces and types of shots. Then, they were searched for those shots with the sought-after collage style. Finally, the pieces of the documentary universe were polished so that everything had visual coherence.

The characters were two for these first scenes in the work in progress. The first is Fernando, the protagonist, who was designed based on some photos from his adolescence provided by the director. It was key to analyze the clothing of the time and the memory he had of how he was on that afternoon in 1979.

The other character is a secondary one, an older man who passed by when Fernando was stunned watching the giant King Kong doll.

Documentary Feature Film | Working in Progress

✦ Animation & Design by Martin Ariel, Yiroto