March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins (La Marche de l'empereur, 2005) is Luc Jacquet's documentary, available to watch online on iFILM. It follows a single year in the lives of emperor penguins in the coldest place on Earth.

Each Antarctic winter, thousands of birds leave the ocean and trek inland in single file, dozens of miles across the ice through blizzards and the long polar dark. Far from the water they pair off and produce one egg apiece. That is where the real drama starts. The female passes the egg to the male and walks back to the sea to feed, while he balances the future chick on his feet for two months in cold near minus sixty, motionless and starving. Then they swap. Fumble the handoff and the chick freezes in seconds.

Jacquet and his crew spent over a year on the ice, paying for it with frostbite and gear that simply quit in the cold. The film picked up the Oscar for best feature documentary, and Morgan Freeman's calm narration carries the English cut rather than the usual swelling voice-over. A perfect family watch, and a treat for anyone who likes nature filmed without sentiment. Stream March of the Penguins (2005) online on iFILM.