Regenerative living: a way of life that actively improves the social and ecological systems we are a part of, creating the conditions for life to flourish for generations to come.
Regenerative living is a revolutionary philosophy rooted in reciprocity, creativity, and care.
At its core, it asks not just how we can reduce harm, but how we can restore, heal, and actively give back to the world around us.
It's a shift from extraction to participation, from passive consumption to conscious co-creation.
Whether it's restoring soil health, reviving community ties, or reimagining our relationship with work and food, regenerative living invites us to treat our homes, neighborhoods, and bioregions as living systems to be nourished, not exploited.
This isn’t about returning to the past — it’s about rediscovering timeless principles and applying them to the future we want to build. Local food systems, community-scale energy, mutual aid networks, and circular economies aren't radical ideas — they’re increasingly recognized as practical solutions to the instability of global supply chains, social disconnection, and burnout.
Regenerative approaches put power back in the hands of people and communities.
They invite us to step into greater agency — to grow food with our neighbors, to rebuild connection with the land and the people around us, and to shape our lives around regenerative principles that restore soil, community, and meaning, instead of relying on extractive systems that erode them.
What makes regenerative living truly transformative is that it’s not just a set of practices — it’s a way of being. It weaves together beauty, creativity, and purpose.
Planting a garden becomes a political act. Cooking a local meal becomes a stand for food sovereignty. Restoring a wetland becomes an act of love for future generations. In this way, regenerative living merges the personal with the political, turning everyday life into a joyful form of creative activism — one where our hands are in the dirt, our hearts are in the work, and the results are visible and tangible.
Documentaries have played a crucial role in helping people see and feel this vision. Films like Water Is Love, Inhabit, and Tomorrow offer more than facts — they offer stories, inspiration, and living examples of what regeneration looks like in practice.
These stories remind us that the solutions already exist — they’re just not always televised.
The work of regenerating land, relationships, and economies doesn't grab the headlines the way protests or bad news often does, but it is deeply fulfilling. It shows us that another world isn't just possible — it's already growing, right now, in gardens, workshops, farms, backyards and neighborhoods around the world.
Ultimately, regenerative living asks us to slow down, look around, and choose participation over passivity. It asks us to be stewards instead of spectators, and creators instead of critics. It offers not a rigid ideology, but an invitation: to live in ways that heal rather than harm, to act with intention, and to make our lives a vibrant contribution to the places we love.
It’s not about being perfect. It’s about showing up — joyfully, messily, and together.
That's what this list of 30 films is about. Together, they show a regeneration revolution is quietly underway.
We hope they nourish you.
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44 min ·
In the face of widespread ecological destruction, social injustice, economic deprivation, there are powerful countercurrents. 'Ordinary' people in several parts of India are resisting the disruption of their lives by constructing...
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61 min ·
What if, in the midst of global uncertainty and ecological distress, we chose to focus our attention on the ways people come together—across cultures and continents—to care for life’s most essential gift? "Water is Love" embodies this...
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31 min ·
In this 30 minute video, Andrew Faust shares his inspiring vision for greater food and energy independence. It's a guide to feeding and providing power for our local communities in ways that are not just "sustainable" but truly...
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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...
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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...
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2 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...
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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...
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51 min ·
Planet Local shows a quiet and transformative revolution emerging worldwide.
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34 min ·
This 35-minute film is a united call for a new economy, delivered by those who have committed their lives to working for systemic change.
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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...
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43 min ·
This 42-minute film is bursting with examples of exciting localization initiatives across the world.
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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 today’s society and dares to ask...
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85 min ·
Living the Change explores solutions to the global crises we face today – solutions any one of us can be part of – through the inspiring stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities in order to live in...
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79 min ·
A Simpler Way follows 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...
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39 min ·
“This beautiful film is the perfect antidote to the cynical narrative that says people are inherently selfish... This film will melt your heart. Guaranteed.”
– Rob Hopkins, author; co-founder Transition Network
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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.
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76 min ·
INHABITANTS follows five Native American communities as they restore their traditional land management practices in the face of a changing climate. For millennia Native Americans successfully stewarded and shaped their landscapes, but...
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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...
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50 min ·
What happens when people work together to create solutions to the social, economic, and ecological issues we face today?
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40 min ·
THE NATURE OF CITIES follows 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...
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51 min ·
All our knowledge comes from nature and yet nature is a source of many mysteries.
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60 min ·
Biophilic Design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. We need nature in a deep and fundamental fashion, but we have often designed our cities and suburbs in ways that both degrade the environment...
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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...
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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...
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70 min ·
At a time when many are disillusioned with big banks and big business, and growing inequity in our country, employee ownership offers a real solution for workers and communities. SHIFT CHANGE visits thriving cooperative businesses in...
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30 min ·
Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest is a 30-minute documentary about Hinewai Nature Reserve, on New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula, and its kaitiaki/manager of 30 years, botanist Hugh Wilson. When, in 1987, Hugh let the local...
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95 min ·
From Venezuela's Communal Councils, to Brazil's Participatory Budgeting; from Constitutional Assemblies to grassroots movements, recuperated factories to cooperatives across the hemisphere -- this documentary is a journey, which takes...
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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...
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45 min ·
A Piece of Ecocity is an inspiring 2-part film about one of the only inner-city eco-housing projects in the world. It is a great example of what could be possible everywhere.
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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...
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110 min ·
The Commons is a documentary film about communities re-asserting sustainable futures using consensus, equity and shared resources – ancient Commons principles.
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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...
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85 min ·
This film presents an optimistic alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee João Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest...
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104 min ·
United Natures explores the rights of Mother Earth, environmental philosophy, wisdom, spirituality, and the potential for a neo-indigenous future for humanity.
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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
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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...
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42 min ·
"Awakening of the Soil" is a compelling 42-minute documentary that follows the transformative journey of Barbaros, a skeptical farmer from Edirne, Turkey as he discovers the world of regenerative agriculture with the guidance of his...
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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...
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28 min ·
This Afristar (www.afristarfoundation.org) produced educational documentary offers step-by-step instructions on how to establish a permaculture garden at a school.
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Local Futures ·
Join the localization movement to build resilient local economies and flourishing communities. Local Futures produced a detailed Localization Action Guide to encourage everyone to 'GO LOCAL' - anytime, anyplace. It offers tangible and...
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