Looking for something to watch or to learn more about an environmental topic? How about arranging a screening for friends or family followed by a lively discussion? Resources on ‘talking about it’ can be found on our pages.
We’ve compiled a list of great films and documentaries to discover.
Climate change
- An Inconvenient Truth – following Al Gore on the lecture circuit as he campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming.
- Before the Flood – a look at how climate change affects our environment and what society can do to prevent the demise of endangered species, ecosystems and native communities.
- Chasing Ice – follow National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.
- Climate Change: The Facts – David Attenborough takes a stark look at the facts surrounding climate change, detailing current dangers and future threats.
- 2040 – practical solutions to environmental concerns are addressed with the hope that the filmmaker’s daughter, 21 years old in the year 2040, will face a hopeful future.
- Tomorrow (Demain) – showing solutions, telling a feel-good story… this may be the best way to solve the ecological, economical and social crises that our countries are going through.
- TED talk by Great Thunberg – in this passionate call to action, Great Thunberg explains why she walked out of school and organised a strike to raise awareness of global warming.
- The Age of Stupid – a future archivist looks at old footage from 2008 to understand why humankind failed to address climate change.
Consumption
- The Clean Bin Project – a regular couple and their quest to answer the question ‘is it possible to live completely waste free?’
- Trashed – Jeremy Irons sets out to discover the extent and effects of the global waste problem as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution.
- Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things – how might your life be better with less?
- The Story of Stuff – for most of the world, consumption has been the unquestioned duty of every individual. Then garbage activist Annie Leonard turned her two-hour lecture into a 20-minute animated revolution.
- The True Cost – a documentary exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet.
Environmental issues
- See Waterbear Films for nature documentaries
- Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret – follow the shocking journey of an aspiring environmentalist as he seeks to find the real solution to the most pressing environmental issues.
- Forks over Knives – examining the profound claim that most of the degenerate diseases can be controlled or even reveres by rejecting our menu of animal-based, processed foods.
- Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – Angela Sun’s journey of discovery to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
- A Plastic Ocean – an international team of scientists and researchers travel across the world to explore the fragile state of our oceans.
- Smog of the Sea – chronicling a one-week journey through remote waters of the Sargasso Sea.
- Blue Planet II – David Attenborough returns to the world’s oceans in this sequel to the acclaimed documentary filming rare and unusual creatures of the deep, as well as documenting the problems our oceans face.
- Planet Earth II – David Attenborough returns in this breathtaking documentary showcasing life on Planet Earth.
- Blackfish – a documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales.
- Chasing Coral – coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on an adventure to discover why and reveal the mystery to the world.
- DamNation – a powerful exploration of the sea change in attitude towards big dams and the realisation that our own future is bound to the health of our rivers.
- Vanishing of the Bees – taking a piercing look at the economic, political and ecological implications of the global disappearance of the honeybee.
- More Than Honey – an in-depth look at the honeybee colonies in California, Switzerland, China and Australia.
- Sustainable – an investigation of the economic and environmental instability of America’s food system from soil loss, water depletion, climate change, and pesticide use to the community of leaders determined to fix it.
- GMO OMG – by the simple act of feeding ourselves, we are unwittingly participating in the largest experiment ever conducted on human beings. The risks and effects to our health and the environment of genetically engineered foods are largely unknown.
- Pump – the story of America’s addition to oil from its corporate conspiracy beginnings to its current monopoly today, and how we can end it.
- Stink! – a father tries to find out what the smell on his kids’ pyjamas could possibly be. But instead of getting a straight answer, he stumbles on an even bigger issue, which is that some products on our store shelves are not safe – by design.
Children’s films
- Wall-E – in the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.
- Ferngully – The Last Rainforest – Crystal, a tree fairy, and Zac, a human, as they work together to fight the destruction of the rainforest.
- The Lorax – a 12-year-old searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.
- Fly Away Home – a father and daughter decide to attempt to lead a flock of orphaned Canada Geese south by air.
- Free Willy – when a boy learns that a beloved killer whale is to be killed by the aquarium owners, the boy risks everything to free the whale.
- March of the Penguins – in the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family.
- Arctic Tale – two narratives — the life cycle of a mother walrus and her calf, and the life of a polar bear and her cubs — are used to illustrate the harsh realities of existence in the Arctic.
- Bambi – the story of a young deer growing up in the forest.
- Hoot – a young man moves from Montana to Florida with his family, where he’s compelled to engage in a fight to protect a population of endangered owls.
- Avatar – a marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
- Happy Feet – into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!