‘At last the family is together’: reproductive futurism in March of the Penguins

Abstract

This paper offers a resistant reading of the nature documentary March of the Penguins, interrogating its humanist and anthropocentric assumptions. It focuses on the film's reiteration of a politics of reproductive futurism, the belief that children are the future. The figurative association March of the Penguins creates between penguin chick and human child demonstrates the politics of reproductive futurism in manifold ways, but also creates some remarkable ambiguities that can suggest the limitations of such a politics.

Keywords:

• nature films
• queer theory
• childhood
• futurity