March of the Penguins (2005)

Terre Adélie, Antarctica

French scientific base of Terre Adélie, located on Petrel Island in the Pointe Géologie archipelago. Opened on January 12, 1956, to replace the Port-Martin base, which was destroyed by a fire in 1952, it is named after explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who discovered these shores in 1840. Managed by the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile-Victor, it can accommodate 30 to 40 people during the winter.

The scene : It is here, at the French scientific base of Terre Adélie, where the small film crew settles for over a year: Luc Jacquet and his two cinematographers, Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison, hosted by the polar institute, depart from there every day to film the nearby colony of emperor penguins.

Terre Adélie, Antarctica

The Adélie Land Archipelago where the Dumont d'Urville base is located, on Petrel Island, and classified as a specially protected area. It is home to a colony of emperor penguins that researchers from the base have been monitoring for decades; according to their studies, it has lost 3,000 pairs in fifty years.

The scene : On the ice floe of the archipelago, about 800 meters from the base, lives the colony of emperor penguins that the film follows for an entire year: the mating season, the long incubation of the eggs by the males in the dead of winter while the females go off to feed at sea, then the return of the females and the departure of the chicks to the ocean.