Of Penguins and Men

After borrowing the DVD from a friend, on recommendation from another, I watched the documentary "March of the Penguins" that delves into the lives of the Emperor Penguins in the heart of the Earth's largest uni-colored desert, Antarctica. If you happen to get hold of this DVD, do not miss the special feature called "Of Penguins and Men", a 53 minute documentary that gives us insight into the men behind the filming of the documentary and their experiences in the 13 month period they spent with the Emperor penguins as their "subjects". The heroes behind this one and a half hour documentary are 2 French men, Luc Jacquet and Jérôme Maison.

Luc and Jerome narrate their life-changing experiences as they watched the Emperor penguins make umpteen number of sacrifices for the survival of their species. The undeterred determination with which they've carried on for centuries fighting against extinction due to the strong and unpredictable hardships delivered by mother nature is something that has moved the filmmakers. Some of the footage from this special feature like the dotted march of a penguin army across the white are breathtaking, while others like the carcasses of a quarter of the chicks after a 3 week blizzard have a morbid silence to them.

Some of the interesting points the filmmakers narrate are their base camp description and the ship that comes with supplies once a year (their only connection with the rest of the world), their daily impatient wait for the penguins to arrive, the 6-layer of clothing they wear every morning to protect them from cold (it takes them half hour to wear them and get ready), the excitement they have when they sight the penguins for the first time, the fearlessness of the innocent penguins as they surround the crew and play with their equipment when they were shooting near the penguin colony, the blizzard with winds upto 90mph that put them out of action for a month with frostbites on their faces and fingers and their thoughts about the penguin colony when they were recuperating, the technology that helped them survive when they were lost in the blizzard, the touching sight of dead penguin chicks that couldn't survive the blizzard, the thoughts they had while having breakfast near the colony of penguins who are starving for 4 months in subzero temperatures just to ensure safety of their young ones, the marvels of icework they discovered when trailing the female penguins who were moving back to the ocean for food and the first plunge that the chicks take when they return to the ocean.

Kudos to the filmmakers for sharing their experiences and bringing to us a wealth of information about one of evolution's most determined survivors.

share this: facebook