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Big Ideas Videos

Watch the Best "Big Idea" Documentaries Online

What are the big ideas of the next decade? The ideas which have the greatest potential to create a better world? This virtual shelf in our library features the best videos our community has discovered that answers just that.

This page isn't just about great ideas though; these are the revolutionary ideas of our time, the kind of ideas no less profound than what propelled Europe from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance. Our best rated selections are guaranteed to inspire your creative thinking and offer radical breakthroughs in understanding. We also tag films with this subject if they get to the root of our society's problems and offer ways we can solve them.

Have you found a good film that should be in this library? Add it! This library isn't just about what our editors discover. The knowledge of the world is far too vast for anyone to be able to digest everything or see all the videos that there are now to see. So if you find a great gem be sure to share it here!

 

Introspection is out, and outrospection is in. Philosopher and author Roman Krznaric explains how we can help drive social change by stepping outside ourselves. The RSA is a 258 year-old charity devoted to creating social progress and spreading world-changing ideas. Roman Krznaric : I believe that empathy – the imaginative act of stepping into another person’s shoes and viewing the world from their perspective – is a radical tool for social change and should be a guiding light for the art of living. Over the past decade, I have become convinced that it has the power not only to transform individual lives, but to help tackle some of the great problems of our age... moreĀ >>
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This video explores the essentials of self-knowledge as a fundamental means to establish true and lasting change in the world, as well as providing insights into the traps towards awakening. Written, narrated and audio editing by Bernhard Guenther Visuals and video editing by Humberto Braga. Further Reading: - "First Initiation" by Jeanne de Salzmann...
  
184 views
Isaac Newton - brilliant rational mathematician or master of the occult? This innovative biography reveals Newton as both a hermit and a tyrant, a heretic and an alchemist. Magical images mix with actors and experts to bring alive Britain's greatest scientific genius in his own words.
  
647 views
added by Hana Munroe
Documentary - 59 min - big ideas, energy
We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are." - Anais Nin
  
505 views
Money & Life is a passionate and inspirational essay-style documentary that asks a provocative question: can we see the economic crisis not as a disaster, but as a tremendous opportunity? This cinematic odyssey connects the dots on our current economic pains and offers a new story of money based on an emerging paradigm of planetary well-being that understands all of life as profoundly...
How do we change the world? Change the story. "The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation." ~ Once the story our world is built on reflects the reality of interconnection, we will be on a true path towards sustainability. The speaker is Charles Eisenstein (author of 'The Ascent of Humanity' and 'Sacred Economics').
  
4382 views
Basic Income should be universal, individual, unconditional and high enough to ensure a dignified existence and participation in society. This new fundamental right for humanity, not only would eradicate misery, it is also a way to develop non-market oriented work: such as artists, parents and volunteers. Sign the petition here: http://basicincome2013.eu Follow us on facebook...
  
4591 views
Inspired by the uprisings of the Arab Spring, filmmaker Rodrigo Dorfman embarks on an exploration of his roots in 1970s Chile, where as a child he witnessed the first peaceful socialist revolution in history. Fascinated by the transformative power of art, Dorfman uncovers the power and legacy of his father’s controversial book How to Read Donald Duck, which the military junta burned and...
  
1287 views
Men of quality do not fear equality. A message about equality from Awra Amba, the amazing egalitarian village in Northern Ethiopia, where men and women enjoy equality at home and at work. Sign up now for the launch of the documentary on www.awraamba.com
  
1694 views
CONTINUUM is a feature length documentary telling the story of where we came from, who we are, and the possibilities of our future. We've just launched our Kickstarter campaign! Come and support us, get involved, share the project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/planetary/planetary-collective-presents-continuum Follow us on Twitter ( www.twitter.com/WeArePlanetary ) and Like us...
  
2695 views
THE WORLD BECOMES WHAT YOU TEACH is a popular TEDx talk by Zoe Weil, the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (www.HumaneEducation.org). She is a pioneer in the comprehensive humane education movement and speaks and lectures throughout the world. Through the Institute's graduate programs, online courses and resources, people are provided with the knowledge, tools...
  
3456 views
In a solidarity economy, our needs are met by exchanging goods, services, resources, and knowledge in ways that advance core values of justice, democracy, cooperation, and ecological sustainability. Portraits of the Solidarity Economy is a film series exploring the stories and motivations of New York City's solidarity economy leaders. You can view a map of solidarity organizations and...
  
1931 views
Economics of Prout covers the basic economic principles of Prout, which offers a viable alternative to the materialistic, anti human philosophies of Capitalism and Communism.
  
2348 views
On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect. The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an...
  
9841 views
Modern agriculture, industry and finance all extract more than they give back, and the Earth is starting to show the strain. How did we get in this mess and what can we do to help our culture get back on track? The ecological design approach known as permaculture offers powerful tools for the design of regenerative, fair ways to provide food, energy, livelihood, and other needs while letting...
  
2162 views
Join acclaimed director Velcrow Ripper on a journey deep inside the global revolution of the heart that is erupting around the planet. Humanity is waking up to the fact that the dominant system of power is failing to provide us with health, happiness or meaning. The resulting crisis has become the catalyst for a profound transformation: millions of people are deciding that enough is enough ...
  
4422 views
For more information about the Street Angel Program visit: http://mosesthemovie.org/street-angel-program/
  
629 views
Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist, and ecological thought. “Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations...
  
945 views
Hemenway is a frequent teacher, consultant and lecturer on permaculture and ecological design throughout the U.S. and other countries. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Natural Home, Whole Earth Review and American Gardener. He is an adjunct professor in the School of Graduate Education at Portland State University, a Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a biologist...
  
3976 views
This is the new teaser trailer for the upcoming documentary Class Dismissed : A Film About Learning Outside of the Classroom. For more information and to find out how you can help see this film to completion please visit http://www.homeschoolfilm.com The movie should be of interest to people who homeschool, use co-ops, believe in child-led learning or are seeing the benefits of any...
  
1519 views
Democracy at Work is a project, begun in 2010, that aims to build a social movement. The movement's goal is transition to a new society whose productive enterprises (offices, factories, and stores) will mostly be WSDE's, a true economic democracy. The WSDEs would partner equally with similarly organized residential communities they interact with at the local, regional, and national...
Bringing Down a Dictator tells the inside story of how Milosevic was brought down -- not by smoke and flames-- but by a courageous campaign of political defiance and massive civil disobedience. Winner of a Peabody Award, the film was narrated by Martin Sheen and premiered on PBS in March 2002. Part 2 is the trailer.
  
1354 views
Extract from the documentary Examined Life by Astra Taylor, featuring Cornell West. Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets. Filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas. ...
  
2181 views
The brilliant naturalist, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature , and founder of the Biomimicry Institute, Janine Benyus , reminds us that our prime directive as living beings is to seek to create conditions conducive to life. What are Nature's 100 Best (from her forthcoming book by the same title) revolutionary solutions to the world's most vexing challenges? ...
The central objective of this film is to reveal man's condition as a modern slave within the context of the totalitarian mercantile system and to show the forms of mystification which mask his servile condition. Its aim is to attack head on the dominant world organization. In the vast field of battle of the worldwide civil war, language is often employed as a weapon. The true nature of...
  
3277 views
Crossroads: Labor Pains of a New Worldview is a documentary exploring the depths of the current human condition and the emergence of a worldview that is recreating our world from the inside out. Weaving together insights and findings from biology, psychology, network science, systems science, business, culture and media, the film reveals the inner workings of the human experience in the...
  
13109 views
Introspection is out, and outrospection is in. Philosopher and author Roman Krznaric explains how we can help drive social change by stepping outside ourselves. The RSA is a 258 year-old charity devoted to creating social progress and spreading world-changing ideas. Roman Krznaric : I believe that empathy – the imaginative act of stepping into another person’s shoes and...
  
4753 views
Stand In My Shoes is a crowd-fuelled social change film about exposing what President Barack Obama coined the "Empathy Deficit" in our world, and the global hunt for social revolutionaries dedicated to creating a countermovement of kindness. That means together we'll fund it, shoot it, spread the film to the World, erase the Empathy Deficit and create a new future of with...
  
1997 views
May we all choose to embark on our own hero's journey to create a sustainable world that works for everybody.
  
943 views
Do you often ask yourself if the future is getting better?! Well, Peter Diamandis is one of those people who believe that not only is it getting better all the time but also that it is happening at a truly extraordinary pace. Want to find out more about Peter argument? Check out this cool video titled The World We Dream which was recorded during the 2012 Zeitgeist Americas. In it...
Comedian Louis C.K., Activist Peter Joseph, and Euro Co-Architect Bernard Lietaer break down and expose the big bad joke that is The Federal Reserve, with help from the self-incriminating former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn. It offers a potential solution in the form of mutual credit clearing systems that eliminate the concept of...
  
3905 views
This is a film about Hannah Bradley who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in 2011, age 26. Even after surgery and radiotherapy, Hannah's future was still severely limited. Her partner Pete Cohen searched for a solution and found Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski. Burzynski had been developing a treatment for cancer for over 40 years. This is their story.
  
1254 views
How do you like to spend your life? What do you desire? what if money didn't matter? What if money was no object? What would you like to do if money were no object? Spoken words by Alan Watts.
  
3422 views
Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house -- looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think.
  
1155 views
Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles -- researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system.
  
2688 views
Wake up to your own role in creating a new future. This new perspective of the current state of our planet features top scientific, indigenous and activist minds from around the world. Now available for the first-time ever on video, The Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium empowers participants to respond to the urgency and the opportunity of our times with action and...
  
17700 views
The true life story of Bill Hicks the outlaw comic who tried to save the world, as told by the 10 people who knew him best. This groundbreaking documentary uses a stunning new animation technique to tell his story. Much more than a comedian, Bill Hicks was and still is an inspiration and intellectual hero to millions. His timeless comedy tackled the contradictions of America and modern life...
  
8270 views
Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that's only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000).
The true life story of the outlaw comic who tried to save the world, as told by the 10 people who knew him best. This groundbreaking documentary uses a stunning new animation technique to tell his story. Much more than a comedian, Bill Hicks was and still is an inspiration to millions. His timeless comedy tackled the contradictions of America and modern life head on. But his unique gift was...
  
5354 views
Grundeinkommen - ein Kulturimpuls (The Basic Income - A Cultural Impulse) is a German film with subtitles in 10 languages that makes the case for a basic income for all citizens. Subtitles Note: To make the subtitles easier to read, we highly recommend clicking the "CC" icon, clicking on settings and then increasing the font size as well as setting the background color to black...
  
3143 views
Together we can transform homework and encourage schools nationwide to reexamine and reimagine homework practices to better support student engagement, health and learning with healthy homework guidelines. For more: http://www.racetonowhere.com/homework-guidelines Sign the petition: http://www.change.org/healthyhomework
  
1492 views
Oct 7th, 2012 - Animal Rights Demonstration. Marineland Amusement Park, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Brendon Culliton is a Neogonzo Journalist for Paradigm Shift Central - a collective of youth initiated communities that encourage open-mindedness, healthy living, and the evolution of consciousness. http://facebook.com/marinelandanimaldefense http://savejapandolphins.org
  
1150 views
Is it possible to feel rich without possessions? Can you live happily without money? In the documentary Living Without Money, we meet the German woman Heidemarie Schwermer who made a deliberate choice to live without money 14 years ago. http://www.livingwithoutmoney.org
  
3355 views
In a thought-provoking presentation, Alfie Kohn makes a compelling case that two traditional features of schooling -- grades and homework -- are not only unnecessary but actually undermine students’ interest in learning. This trailer is made up of 4 clips from the DVD. Click parts 2-4 to view each clip. Research consistently finds that giving students letter or number grades...
  
6311 views
Join our global movement to create a planetary Birth Day celebration and webcast on Dec. 22 with 100 million people to mark the start of a new era for humanity! Events are activating around the world. http://birth2012.com/
  
1985 views
Chris Bedford and Shelley Morhaim made this award winning 56 minute long film on the sustainability revolution in materials and manufacturing. "The Next Industrial Revolution" tells the story of architect William McDonough's and chemist Michael Braungart's work to redesign the industrial material economy to "work with Nature, not against it." McDonough is also well known for advocating the...
540 days in jail for dancing, smoking cannabis, going to court, and riding a bike. "Derrick J's Victimless Crime Spree", is a feature-length documentary chronicling liberty activist Derrick J Freeman's exciting first year of activism in New Hampshire. Download the torrent: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7490311 Official site: http://victimlesscrimespree.com Official facebook...
  
2673 views
REAL ESTATE 4 RAN$OM outlines a genuine alternative to the global property speculation that forced so many into debt. Doubling the pressure, the tax game has become just that, with tax havens a favoured option for the wealthy. The result - we are taxing the wrong things, causing more problems whilst bankrupting once proud economies. Fast edits and funky music help to lift the world of...
Short documentary film commenting on the success and ramifications of Sharecraft 2012 which was started by the crew of AtheneLive.com. In this video we look at the reasons sharecraft was started, the political implications, and how it's success has effected the way the world should view gamers and charity. It also showcases the tremendous power of social networks for creating mass awareness...
Can shopping save the world? The Story of Change urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world. What Kind of Changemaker Are You? Ready to make some change? Want to help write the next chapter in the Story of Stuff? Whatever you have to offer, a better future needs it...
  
3695 views
In Transition 2.0 is an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement , gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You’ll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food everywhere, localising their economies and setting up community power stations. It’s an idea that has gone viral, a social experiment that is about...
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1-50 of 141 Videos