Queerying Nature

Over the past 20 years, through a new and freer perspective, scientists have revealed an animal world in which sexuality, gender and family rhyme with diversity. Queer is natural! From the pioneering work on queer animals by biologist Joan Roughgarden, to the interrogations of philosopher Vinciane Despret, via the intimate portraits of Camille Pier and Gwenn Seemel – artists who have seized upon Joan’s work and queer nature to emancipate themselves and to create –, while reflecting on diversity with biologist Thierry Lodé and ethologist Fleur Daugey, the film interweaves the thoughts and emotions of two artists inspired by this queer nature and the multitude of animal behaviours and depict that poetically. Through the intimate and the reflective, Queerying Nature asks: is the story of the animal the echo of our society? And could we shatter the idea of a sexual norm while removing the symbolic power of animals?