Films are powerful. Combining images and sound to convey a message, they can inform and inspire. We’ve put together a list of films, many of which have won awards at environmental film festivals. We guarantee you’ll find at least one, if not several, that you will enjoy.
Available for Download
Most of these films can be downloaded or watched online free of charge. Some require a purchase.
Bernd Heinrich: Winter World How Animals Survive: Heinrich explores the amazing ways in which animals ranging from chickadees to chipmunks and bats to bees make it through the harsh conditions of winter (1h4m)
Death by Design: What is the cost of our digital dependency? A global story of damaged lives, environmental destruction, and devices that are designed to die (1h13m)
Edward Abbey: A Voice in the Wilderness: A look back at Abbey's life as remembered by sixteen of his closest friends and family members (56m)
Elk River: Travel with elk herds as they migrate from Wyoming to Elk River (27m50s)
Fix and Release: Every year the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre fixes injured turtles - with zip ties, duct tape, crazy glue, and modern veterinary science (15m42s)
In Transition 2.0: Stories of transition communities printing their own money, growing food, localising their economies, and setting up community power stations (1h7m)
Lost in Light II: A look at how light pollution affects our view of the night skies using one of the most prominent constellations - The Orion (2m14s)
Microsculpture: Photographic study of insects in magnification (5m24s)
Our Last Refuge: A film about the Blackfeet Nation’s fight to protect the wild and sacred Badger-Two Medicine from industrial development (25m)
River Blue: How dirty are your jeans? The impact of fashion on the world’s rivers (full-length documentary)
Running Wild: Citizen scientists undertake a massive project to determine if wolverines have returned to Utah’s Uinta mountains (7m8s)
Sustainable Me: Young Edmontonians have developed a series of films and podcasts to show how the changes we make can save the environment - from a geothermal community to trading, swapping, and repurposing
Saving Ash Trees from an Invasive Killer: Two scientists from different disciplines collaborate to save the American ash tree population with a high-tech electrified decoy (4m33s)
Sea of Life: Follow Canadian filmmaker Julia Barnes on an underwater adventure to discover the truth about the biggest threats facing our oceans today (1h28m)
Seasons: By the directors of Winged Migration, Seasons explores life in Europe’s lush forests, recounting the shared history that binds humans with the natural world (1h36m)
Temple of the Ghost Owl: A great gray owl is caught in the middle of a political controversy over logging burnt habitat (21m16s)
The Corridor: Exploring the conflict between our desire to hold on to natural areas and the push for development, concentrating on one location, and one road, in Australia (22m)
Unbroken Grounds: Four areas of agriculture aim to change our relationship to the land and oceans through regenerative agriculture and grazing, diversified crop development, and restorative fishing (26m)
Valve Turners: A team of activists shuts down five pipelines carrying tar sands crude oil into the United States from Alberta (9m)
Host a Screening
These films need to be ordered and/or purchased.
Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees: Follow scientist and author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger as she explores our biological and spiritual connections to the most beautiful forests of the northern hemisphere (1h)
Complicit: Young Asian workers are dying making our smartphones (88m)
Demain [Tomorrow]: What could be tomorrow’s world? Meet the pioneers who are re-inventing agriculture, energy, economy, democracy, and education in 10 countries around the world (full-length documentary)
How We Grow: Land access, income inequality, and a short growing season turn from barriers into levers as these ambitious young farmers discover ways to get healthy, sustainably produced, locally grown, nutrient dense food onto the tables of everyone in the community (1h5m)
Evolution of Organic: The story of organic agriculture and its future (87m)
Fixed!: A light-hearted look at the folks behind Repair Café Toronto (14m)
Kokota: The Islet of Hope: A small island successfully reforests its land and adapts to climate change
Living the Change: Inspiring Stories for a Sustainable Future: From forest gardens to composting toilets, community-supported agriculture to timebanking, solutions from New Zealand to the global crises (full-length documentary)
Plastic China: Meet the workers who transform the world’s plastic waste into new products and the toll it takes on their lives (1h22m)
Super Hummingbirds: Watch hummingbirds mate, lay eggs, fight, and raise families in intimate detail (60m)
An Uncommon Curiosity: At Home & in Nature with Bernd Heinrich: Follows Bernd Heinrich over the course of a year as he reflects on his past and shares his ideas about nature, science, art, beauty, and writing (60m)
Unfractured: An intimate look at one activist’s convictions, hopes, and sacrifices as Sandra Steingraber speaks out against fracking (full-length documentary)
Water Warriors: the story of a New Brunswick community’s successful fight to protect their water from the oil and natural gas industry (22m)
Women Bending the Curve on Climate Change: The stories of climate change leaders from Canada’s West Coast working in renewable energy, city government, energy conservation, community engagement, sustainable food, finance,and indigenous land stewardship
Yorkton Film Festival on Tour (free): DVDs of the award-winning films from Yorkton Film Festival can be screened free of charge by libraries, schools, and community groups. The Environmental DVD includes Fix and Release, Sustainable Me, and others
