Apr 22, 2017

80 Eco-Conscious Documentaries to Honor Mother Earth

By Films For Action / filmsforaction.org
80 Eco-Conscious Documentaries to Honor Mother Earth
Pangea - Earth 300 million years ago | Film list updated 4/19/2025

Pachamama, our dear Mother Earth, is 4.5 billion years old. She is home to an estimated 8.7 million species of life! This wondrous web of relationships is truly a gift to be a part of, and we can thank our growing and evolving Mother Earth for the eyes and mind we have to appreciate our relationship with her. Just think - we evolved to have a form of consciousness that would eventually see that, as Earth is one meta-organism, we are the consciousness of that organism. In the same way that plants are the lungs and ocean currents are like a circulatory system, humans are consciousness!

Earth Day is a great day to contemplate epiphanies like these. But really, every day is a good day to honor the many connections and relationships we have to Papatūānuku, and to remember that we really, truly are not separate from the universe. We are the universe.

While we have people like Rachel Carson, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson and David Suzuki to thank for teaching us the scientific understandings behind this reality, we should also give thanks to our indigenous elders - the oldest wisdom carriers of our human family - for retaining this wisdom so that the cultures who forgot could someday remember. We are still in that process of remembering. And in the spirit of that remembrance, we wanted to put together this list of 80 environmental, eco-conscious documentaries. 

64 of them are free to watch online and four can be rented for a few dollars. The other 12 can all be watched by becoming a $5 Films For Action subscriber for a month. Just click the link for each film to watch. 

 

The Evolution of Ecological Consciousness | Andrew Faust
109 min · Permaculture designer Andrew Faust gives us an inspiring and heady narrative about the evolution of all life and human consciousness on Mother Earth.
India's Healing Forests: Come Home, Be Healed
51 min · All our knowledge comes from nature and yet nature is a source of many mysteries.
Earth Days
102 min · On April 22, 1970, more than 20 million Americans across the country participated in celebrations and demonstrations the largest in American history demanding political action to protect the environment. Their grassroots call to...
TAWAI: A Voice From the Forest
100 min · Tawai is a word the nomadic hunter-gatherers of Borneo use to describe the connection they feel to their forest home. In this dreamy, philosophical and sociological look at life, Bruce Parry (of the BBC's Tribe, Amazon & Arctic) embarks...
The Global Brain | Peter Russell
35 min · Peter Russells award-winning video, based on a live audio-visual presentation in 1983. He explores the idea that the Earth is an integrated, self-regulating living organism and asks what function humanity might have for this planetary...
A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity
79 min · A Simpler Wayfollows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. Throughout the year the group built tiny houses, planted veggie gardens, practised simple...
The Rights of Nature: A Global Movement
53 min · Western views and the legal system tend to view nature as property, and as a resource from which wealth is extracted, a commodity whose only value is to provide for human needs. But for millennia indigenous communities have viewed...
Water is Love
61 min · Water is Love reveals the power of regenerative ecosystem design to create water retention in communities, villages, and regions. We touch upon traditional ecological knowledge, how water makes climate, and the importance of restoring...
The Ground Between Us
62 min · Since 2017, public lands throughout America have faced unprecedented threats. Bears Ears National Monument was shrunk by 85%, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was opened to oil exploration, and the Elliott State Forest in Oregon was...
Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective
92 min · Humanity is more than ever threatened by its own actions; we hear a lot about the need to minimize footprints and to reduce our impact. But what if our footprints were beneficial? What if we could meet human needs while increasing the...
Wetheuncivilised, A Life Story
101 min · Once in a while a film comes along that has profound impact this is a delicious taste of what can be. - Polly Higgins
Invisible Hand: Who Will Speak For Nature?
84 min · From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes the worlds first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement, a Paradigm Shifting story where the 'Rights of Nature' has become'capitalisms one true opponent.'
The Nature of Cities
40 min · THE NATURE OF CITIESfollows the journey of Professor Timothy Beatley as he explores urban projects around the world, representing the new green movement that hopes to move our urban environments beyond sustainability to a regenerative...
HOME
93 min · We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our...
The Wisdom To Survive
55 min · Climate change is here. Will we have the wisdom to survive? The film features thought leaders and activists in the realms of science, economics, and spirituality. The focus: how we can live creatively and even joyfully in the face of...
Dancing With The Cannibal Giant: New Stories for the Great Transition
35 min · "When today's stories of crushing greed and endless growth have come to an end, what, then, will be the new stories?" This film was created as an educational tool that can be used to move us beyond disempowerment, in order to enact...
United Natures: a United Nations of all Species
104 min · United Natures explores the rights of Mother Earth, environmental philosophy, wisdom, spirituality, and the potential for a neo-indigenous future for humanity.
Fall and Winter
102 min · This stunning film takes you on a hypnotic journey, reaching to the past to understand the origins of the catastrophic environmental transitions we now face. Over two years, director Matt Anderson traveled 16,000 miles to document...
The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?
61 min · Opening with a powerful deep time perspective, from the beginning of the Earth to our present moment, BAFTA-winning director Peter Armstrong's new film recognises the fundamental unsustainability of todays society and dares to ask the...
Tomorrow: All Over the Globe, Solutions Already Exist
120 min · Without question, this is absolutely the best and most creative film on the future of humanity and the environment. Paul HawkenWhat if telling a story that gives hope by pointing out solutions was the best way to solve the ecological...
Fantastic Fungi
80 min · When so many are struggling for connection, inspiration and hope, Fantastic Fungi brings us together as interconnected creators of our world.
Planet Ocean
88 min · Can we imagine a film that would change the way people look at the ocean? Can we explain simply, to everyone, the greatest natural mystery of our planet? And lastly, can we help our children believe in a better and more sustainable...
Ecological Learning Through Direct Experience
45 min · This is a documentary about getting out into the natural world and learning from the wisdom of land and people - focusing on how rewilding our perception might be the catalyst for the changes we wish to see in the world.
Gimme Green
27 min · Lawns are undeniably an American symbol. But what do they really symbolize? Pride and prosperity? Or waste and conformity?
Origins
101 min · This is a movie about how we have left the natural connection to the planet. The movie investigates how this has happened, the incredible amounts of pollutants that we are exposed to, even as a fetus, and the technology that can help...
Within Reach: Journey to Find Sustainable Community
87 min · Within Reach explores one couple's pedal-powered search for a place to call home. Mandy and Ryan gave up their jobs, cars, and traditional houses to 'bike-pack' 6500 miles around the USA seeking sustainable community. Rather than...
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
52 min · When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half and food by 80 percent people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the...
The Choice Is Ours
59 min · This film series explores many aspects of our society. To rethink what is possible in our world, we need to consider what kind of world we want to live in. Although we refer to it as civilization, it is anything but civilized. Visions...
Regreening the Desert with John D. Liu
48 min · "It's possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems with the use of permaculture design principles and techniques."
Singapore: Biophilic City
44 min · A whirlwind week in Singapore exploring the amazing story of how Singapore came to be one of the most 'biophilic' cities of the world, on the cutting edge of ecocity design and innovation. Did you have any idea? There has been...
The Biggest Little Farm
92 min · The Biggest Little Farm chronicles the eight-year quest of John and Molly Chester as they trade city living for 200 acres of barren farmland and a dream to harvest in harmony with nature. Through dogged perseverance and embracing the...
In Transition 2.0: A Story of Resilience & Hope in Extraordinary Times
66 min · This film is an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. There are stories of communities printing their own money, growing food...
Call Of Life: Facing The Mass Extinction
80 min · All over the world species are becoming extinct at an astonishing rate, from 1000 to 10,000 times faster than normal. The loss of biodiversity has become so severe that scientists are calling it amass extinction event.
Unwasted: The Future Of Business On Earth
54 min · Unwasted presents the alluring ideal of zero waste as a key element of the sustainable business model. While some may shake their heads thinking this an impossible task, its worth remembering that mankind had a zero waste lifestyle up...
A Passion For Sustainability
56 min · Envision a society where economic opportunity, social justice and sustainable culture all spring from environmental stewardship. Imagine a world where nurturing the health of the planet is the catalyst for global financial success and...
Seeing the Forest
31 min · This documentary tells the story of how a national forest service evolved from seeing trees as its primary resource, to seeing the forest whole.
The Economics of Happiness
65 min · Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction...
Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War
58 min · Using on-site and archival footage to illustrate specialist and eyewitness accounts from around the world, "Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives" shows how war and preparations for war further compromise the environmental health of a planet...
First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological Architecture
90 min · FIRST EARTHis a documentary about the movement towards a massive paradigm shift for shelter -- building healthy houses in the old ways, out of the very earth itself, and living together like in the old days, by recreating villages. It...
Earth Pilgrim
49 min · A spiritual journey into the ethereal landscape of Dartmoor with Satish Kumar, the world-renowned ecologist & creator of Resurgence magazine. Through changing seasons, Satish walks the moor and explores ancient woods and rivers, home to...
Education For a Sustainable Future
53 min · Education For a Sustainable Future presents information on how today's practices in schools are socially unsustainable. The documentary film critically analyses what is considered socially relevant in a new education system which brings...
Occupied Cascadia
116 min · Occupied Cascadia is a documentary film both journalistic and expressionistic. Exploring the emerging understanding of bioregionalism within the lands and waters of the Northeast Pacific Rim, the filmmakers interweave intimate landscape...
What's a Colloquium? An Oral History of the Natural Building Movement
76 min · A small band of natural building enthusiasts and outlaws met in a field over 20 years ago at something they called a colloquium. The movement they created has grown uncontrollably ever since; reviving and innovating ancient building...
Waste = Food
49 min · Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in nations like China and India. The waste production world wide is enormous and if we...
Seeds of Permaculture: If It's Beautiful, It's Better
88 min · An interactive film about permaculture in the tropics, with education and inspiration as the main threads running through this hour-and-a-half-documentary. We remind you subtitles are available! Visit http://www.seedsofpermaculture.org...
The Soil Solution To Climate Change
30 min · What If A Solution To Climate Change Was Beneath Your Feet? Soil is a living universe beneath our feet.As important to our lives as clean air and water, soil also holds a potential solution to the global climate crisis. Increasing...
Recipe For Change | Building an Earthship in Ushuaia
62 min · Recipe For Change follows the story of Earthship Biotecturein Ushuaia, Argentina as they and a group of academy students build a two-room simple survival Earthship. Earthships are fully off the grid buildings which catch t
From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers' Warning
87 min · The Kogi are the last surviving civilization from the days of the Inca and Aztec. They see themselves as the spiritual guardians of life on earth. For four centuries they lived in seclusion in the Sierra Nevada mountains, carefully...
Aluna: A Journey to Save the World
89 min · Aluna means "conscience." Enter the last theocratic chiefdom in America, hidden for centuries on a mountain in Colombia. The Kogi have made this amazing documentary to help us understand how to avoid the destruction of the world that...
The Superior Human?
73 min · "The Superior Human?" systematically challenges the common human belief that humans are superior to all other life forms, which is often used as an excuse for animal cruelty and the destruction of our own environment. It reveals the...
Treeline: A Story Written in Rings
41 min · Throughout history, as entire civilizations have withered and mankind has continued to move at a breathless pace, the trees have remained. For some, these trees harbor the secrets to longevity. For others, they provide clear evidence of...
Let Them Eat Dirt: The Hunt For Our Kids' Missing Microbes
57 min · Allergies, obesity, asthma, diabetes, auto-immune and intestinal disorders are all on the rise, with the incidence of some diseases doubling every ten years. New research points to changes in the ecosystem of microbes that live on and...
Anima Mundi: Permaculture, Deep Ecology & the Soul of the World
77 min · Many people do not realize that permaculture is much more than about growing fruit and vegetables, it is a whole view incorporating the environment, energy, resources, housing, technology, education, healthcare, the arts, spirituality...
Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest
30 min · Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest is a 30-minute documentary about Hinewai Nature Reserve, on New Zealands Banks Peninsula, and its kaitiaki/manager of 30 years, botanist Hugh Wilson. When, in 1987, Hugh let the local...
Why Earth Destruction Is a Crime
47 min · Damaging the earth is a crime, right? That is what earths lawyer Polly Higgins thinks. Why earth destruction should be seen as a crime and what is it that brings earth lawyers Polly Higgins and Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzn to fight...
Surviving Earth
95 min · An epic, ominous and perhaps life saving radio interview occurs with director, Peter Charles Downey on a small-town country radio station about his new documentary movie, Surviving Earth. Where the trees whisper of humanitys mass...
The Cross of the Moment
84 min · Fermi's Paradox, climate change, capitalism, and collapse are among the subjects discussed in this feature length documentary on the environmental crisis. Interviewees include Bill McKibben, Gary Snyder, Derrick Jensen, Peter D. Ward...
Feeding Ourselves
96 min · Feeding Ourselves weaves intimate stories from the hopes and convictions of rural BC farmers and producers as they navigate undercurrents of uncertainty with our food system. Their commitment to local food culture inspires us to...
The Twelve: A Tale of Wisdom & Unity
75 min · The Twelve tells the story of twelve spiritual Elders from around the globe who gather at the United Nations in New York to create a unique ritual for Humankind and planet Earth. By interviewing each one of them in their home...
Ancient Futures:  Learning From Ladakh
59 min · Ladakh, or 'Little Tibet', is a wildly beautiful desert land high in the Western Himalayas. It is a place of few resources and an extreme climate. Yet for more than 1,000 years, it has been home to a thriving culture. Traditions of...
A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil
51 min · Cities should be a solution not a problem for human beings. The city of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems into cost-effective solutions that can be applied in most cities around the world. A...
Deep Ecology
53 min · Deep Ecology delves into the profound interconnectedness of our personal and collective grief with the ecological and systemic crises engulfing our planet. At its heart lies the transformative practice of community acknowledgment and...
The Great Simplification
33 min · This 32 minute animation - in 4 Acts - describes the backdrop for The Great Simplification - an economic/cultural transition beginning in the not-too-distant future.
Imprint
75 min · What can one person do? What can a group of people do? What do we want to leave behind? In the film "Imprint" we visit 13 projects in 13 different places where committed groups work for a vibrant future. A personal and poetic depiction...
Reflection: A Walk with Water
80 min · The conditions that make life possible are rapidly changing. Reckoning with this reality on the cusp of a record-setting dry season, filmmaker Emmett Brennan embarks on a powerful journey to find stories of hope and healing.Brennan sets...
Plastic Island: The Terrible Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea
53 min · The Mediterranean Sea is the most polluted sea in the world - this is the observation made by many scientists. At the heart of this pollution, plastics hold an important place. In 2019, the media announced that off Corsica there would...
Men's Madness
52 min · A provocative critique of mans technological progress.
To The Ends of the Earth
75 min · "Wonderfully in touch with this historical moment". - Mark Achbar, The Corporation "To the Ends of the Earth" follows concerned citizens living at the frontiers of extreme oil and gas extraction, bearing witness to a global...
Public Trust: Fight for America’s Public Lands
99 min · A feature-length documentary about Americas system of public lands and the fight to protect them.
2040: Join The Regeneration
91 min · Award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted...
2012: Time For Change
85 min · This film presents an optimistic alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee Joo Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest...
From Trash To Treasure: Turning Negatives Into Positives
25 min · In Lesothoa highland country surrounded by South Africaan artist named Nthabiseng TeReo Mohanela takes discarded materials and transforms them into unique clothing and accessories. Teaching young people the benefits of recycling and...
Terra Blight
55 min · TERRA BLIGHT is a documentary exploring Americas consumption of computers and the hazardous waste we create in pursuit of the latest technology.
This Living Salish Sea
88 min · "This sweeping documentary takes us in and under the waters of the Salish Sea, while more fully understanding the threats posed by the Trans Mountain (Ex- Kinder Morgan) pipeline expansion
END:CIV
75 min · Directed by Franklin Lopez, END:CIV examines our cultures addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations.
The White Hole in Time | Peter Russel
26 min · In this video Peter Russell proposes that we stand on the threshold of a major leap in evolution, as significant as the emergence of life itself, and the essence of this leap is inner spiritual development. Moreover, he maintains that...
Separated Interbeings | Volume 1
1020 min · "One of the best things you'll (n)ever see." Separated Interbeings is a film collage of our diverse and complex world caught on camera, creatively put together to open deeper perspectives and insights on the world we live in.
Separated Interbeings | Volume 2
900 min · Separated Interbeings is a film collage of our diverse and complex world caught on camera, creatively put together to open deeper perspectives and insights on the world we live in.
Awakening of the Soil (Toprağın Uyanışı)
42 min · "Awakening of the Soil" is a compelling 42-minute documentary that follows the transformative journey of Barbaros, a skeptical farmer from Edirne, Turkeyas he discovers the world of regenerative agriculture with the guidance of his...
Alter Nativas: Building Possible Futures
115 min · Alter Natives is a documentary about transition initiatives and ecosocial regeneration; a collective project to make visible transformative experiences in our geographies and inspire other possible futures.Alternatives, from Latin Alter...

 

May our love for you, dear mother Earth, give us the courage and strength to protect you, honor you, and defend you from the people who have forgotten their sacred connection to you.

May the day come when all of humanity has remembered this forgotten truth, not through our hopes, but through our actions, guided by our compassion for all beings. 

Activism   Environment   Philosophy   Solutions   Sustainability   The Big Picture
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