The ultimate environmental films / tv list

For your hibernation needs

Sometimes we need to lose ourselves in a different world. It can, at times, be really healthy to tune out and tune into a wonderful story.

Here’s a list of films/tv series/episodes that I recommend for a night on the couch. For those moments when you’re done with the day, but don’t want to waste your brain space. For moving pictures that touch on the issues I cover here, but leave you hopeful while you chomp on your ridiculously involved homemade popcorn (nutritional yeast + my recommendation: add freshly chopped scallions, tomatoes, and turmeric) and snuggle with your favorites.

Note: I’ll update this list as an ongoing archive of all that is on topic and worth watching. If you have any additions, do apply to this note and I’ll add them after vetting. Asterixed titles (*) are family friendly, ones with a lowercase (t) might be too much for you right now, and if you are deciding between a few or have any questions - I’ve seen every single one of these.

All that’s left is for you to choose your vibe: Adventurous, Quirky, Hungry, Badass, Earthy, Aesthetic, Eco-warrior, Ag-y, Animals, Space cadets, Future talk, Fashionable, Greeeeeeeeeddd, Social, or Trashy…

Adventurous

Maiden: An all-women sailing team races around the world… in 1989.

Night on Earth: Shot in the Dark: Wildlife photographers stake out rare animals with cool night vision cameras.

180º South: A super fan traces the Patagonian climbing adventures of Chouinard and crew.

Moana (*): A brave heroine ventures away from home and all the haters to restore earth’s balance, and gets lovingly heckled by a super fun god named Maui along the way.

Quirky

The Gleaners and I / Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse: A wonderfully odd, ragtag French filmmaker dives into gleaning and why we need to bring this societal habit back to fight hunger and food waste.

Isle of Dogs: In a futuristic and dystopian Japan, talking dogs are banished to a remote island after a mysterious flu pandemic, and a boy defies the odds to travel there and try to find his best friend. Thanks, Wes Anderson.

The Mermaid / 美人鱼: A Stephen Chow slapstick… love story?! with mermaids?! I giggled throughout this and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hungry

Chef’s Table, Volume 3: Virgilio Martinez: A world-famous Peruvian chef Virgilio and his sister Malena (who I spoke with here) explore Peru’s rich biodiversity and imagine incredible dishes.

Cowspiracy, The Sustainability Secret: An unflinching look at how meat (and the people who lie about it) hurt not only our personal health, but the environment. Looking for a swift kick to convince you once and for all that your burger should be “beyond,” “impossible,” or “veggie?” It’s here.

Explained, Season 2, The Future of Meat: Vox gives the quick Vox treatment to meat and shows all the meaty ways that we can meet a brighter, more sustainable future.

Forks Over Knives: A journalist subjects himself to plant-based eating in an attempt to fight the diseases that he was surprised to know he had, and never goes back. This is the original plant-based movie, featuring great zingers from the one and only Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (who I spoke with here)

Food, Inc. A thorough take down that uncovers all the ways America’s food industry is beyond evil and f-ed up.

The Game Changers: All these ridiculously ripped and talented athletes show you what “Hey, I’m plant-based. It’s awesome” looks like.

Badass

Children of Men (t): This is such a thoroughly amazing, underrated, dark thriller that looks at a world that mysteriously can’t have children, and a man’s life or death fight to protect the only person who is pregnant.

The Green Frontier / La Frontera Verde: A Colombian cop and some badass immortals investigate some pretty crazy murder mysteries in the Amazon.

Ultimate Beastmaster: People who workout way too much compete Donkey Kong-style for the bananas (bragging rights and money).

Princess Mononoke / もののけ姫 (*): Epic battle: forest gods vs. humans. Featuring a prince and a mysterious woman raised by wolves.

Earthy

The Blue Planet: David Attenborough can make anything sound intriguing but luckily no selling points are needed in this punch-you-in-the-face beautiful, well-narrated, behind-the-scenes look at our little blue marble.

Monty Don’s Big Dreams Small Spaces: The United Kingdom’s favorite gardener helps bumbling everyday folks figure out their backyards using as little money as possible and a whole lot of handiwork. This is so thoroughly delightful - you’ll binge watch it because of all of their unfussy, the-world-can-be-good vibes.

Planet Earth: Some say that it’s necessary to enjoy a joint while watching, others say that it’s “simply looking at the planet through the eyes of nature, without borders.” Either way, it’s a classic.

Aesthetic

Abstract: The Art of Design: Season 2: "Neri Oxman: Bio-Architecture" MIT Media Lab’s Professor Neri Oxman takes biomimicry to new heights.

The Big Flower Fight: Who knew an entire Netflix series could be a flower sculpture competition?

Urbanized: The class-favorite deep-dive into the design of cities, and the bike-first, public transport-loving, park-y designs that you’ve witnessed take shape in your cities over the past decade.

The World's Most Extraordinary Homes: Season 2 Part A: "Japan": Piers Taylor and Caroline Quentin travel to Japan to ogle cool houses that are very much in conversation with the landscapes they’re in.

Eco-warrior

An Inconvenient Truth: Vice President Al Gore does a rock star tour with a slideshow, and raises a whole lot of awareness around the climate crisis in the early 2000s.

Blackfish (t): When “entertainment” that involves kidnapped, traumatized orcas isn’t so entertaining.

Chasing Ice: They somehow made receding glaciers, and a scientist’s quest to document them, thrilling.

Explained: Season 1: "The World's Water Crisis": About 20 years from now you’re going to be relieved that you took 18 minutes to watch this now. That’s all that I have to say. Yes - I know this is ominous, but it’s true.

Gasland: A guy gets a letter from a company offering a whole lot of money to frack in his backyard, and decides to investigate.

Ministry of Silly Walks: Remember this Monty Python ball of laughs when protesting, lobbying, and dealing with difficult bureaucrats.

Naussica: Valley of the Wind / 風の谷のナウシカ (*): Mutant giant insects and a girl with her head on straight fight the tech bros.

Okja (t): You’ll fall in love with and root for an incredibly life-like giant pig and her best friend in this dark thriller that seems to be about human nature as much as it is about the meat industry.

Years of Living Dangerously: Actors show real personal concern and investigate what climate change actually looks like in this compelling, well-researched, educational series.

The Lorax (*): The beloved Dr. Seuss book makes it into a cute film adaptation that carries the original message forward.

Watching next: Chasing Coral (thanks for the rec. Ali W.)

Ag-y

The Biggest Little Farm (*): A Los Angeles couple and their dog Todd raise a ton of money to build a *really sweet,* permaculture-driven fruit farm.

Dirt!: Farmers sound the alarm on the health of soil in the states and how we’re running out of it… 11 years ago. Heh. Heh. Want an updated look at all the ways soil is amazing? Check out my chat with soil expert Cuauhtemoc Villa.

Animals

Explained, Season 2, Animal Intelligence: “Yo, guys, what is UP with humans?”

Jane: Chimpanzees befriend a scientist in the 50s, without realizing that it was a big deal to humans that she was a woman, and that her research on them would inspire people around the world to care more about their plight, and note how much humans and chimps are alike.

Jurassic Park:
“What species is this?”
“It’s a velociraptor.”

March of the Penguins / La marche de l'empereur (t): You will watch this, get quite emotional, and then run and superman-slide belly down across your living room floor to cheer yourself up.

More than Honey: Who knew that a Swiss beekeeper lounging on the side of a mountain and waxing poetic could almost bring you to tears?

Finding Nemo (*): A little fish gets lost in the big blue ocean and his dad and aunt go on quite the adventure to find him.

Free Willy (*): A rebel child finds a kindred spirit in a Sea World orca and teams up with the only cool adults left to try and save him.

Watching next: Honeyland (thanks Natalie H., I realized that I somehow haven’t seen this yet!)

Space cadets

Arrival: Aliens arrive on earth, and a brilliant translator grapples with their language, and her colleagues.

Contact: A SETI scientist finds mind-blowing evidence of extra terrestrial life, and wraps her head around what “belief” means when it can’t go through the scientific method.

Interstellar: Humans destroyed the planet to the point where nothing will grow, so they send astronauts out to investigate other potentially habitable planets, which means things get crazy and time gets really out of whack. (Yes, I asked NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir about how time in space works… and penguins.)

Rick and Morty: a genius grandpa who is a complete asshole and his naïve teen grandson travel the galaxy, sparking odd moments, witty societal commentary, and heartfelt examinations into the human condition. Not for kids, but really for cynical adults in desperate need of a hearty laugh.

Future talk

Back to the Future: “Why are things so heavy in the future? Is it a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull?!”

Ex Machina (t): AI goes wrong, very, very wrong. Fun fact: this was shot using vintage lenses on new digital cameras.

Big Hero 6 (*): I can’t tell you how often I recommend this film. In SanFransoyko a troubled boy and his late brother’s newly-invented medical robot go on an adventure to recover his stolen nanobots. Something I always mention: all the future technology featured in this movie is actually currently being developed.

Fashionable

RiverBlue (t): Fashion’s polluting and unsafe for the people who work in it, right? Did you know that it was **THIS** bad? Yeah, I didn’t either.

Patriot Act by Hasan Minaj, Volume 5: The Ugly Face of Fast Fashion: Hasan Minaj and team give their no holds barred treatment to Zara.

Social

Dave Chappelle’s 8:46: Words that communicate such truth in light of all the pain that’s in our world right now.

I Am Not an Easy Man / Je ne suis pas un homme facile: A chauvinist gets a serious but at times hilarious wake-up call when he gets knocked out and wakes up in a world that is run by women. This movie is very French.

John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons: You most likely didn’t learn this in school. Thanks to John Leguizamo’s one-man show, you can now.

Greeeeeeeeeddd

Watching next: There Will Be Blood (thanks for the rec Mark L.)

Trashy

Waste Land: A Brazilian artist that makes art with trash teams up with garbage pickers to make a special portrait series and bring attention to their living and working conditions.

Wall-E (*): “EEEEEEEE-VAHHHHHHH” An adorable trash picking robot that’s left on an uninhabitable earth to slowly clean it up piece by piece gets a surprise visitor.

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To your week of back-to-back movie nights,

Jenna

P.S. Forward this to a friend and watch your pick remotely, together, or put it on with your quarantine buddy and save yourselves from telling each other the same story for a third time.

P.P.S. Have a recommendation for this list? Reply!