Films For Action's Library: Explore Thousands of Activist Videos, Articles & Documentaries

The Economics of Happiness (2011)

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; financial instability and unemployment. There...

65 min · 392,479 views · 94%

The Economics of Happiness (Abridged Version)

This is a shortened version of the award-winning feature-length documentary film, The Economics of Happiness. Cut down from 68 minutes to less than 20, it provides an introduction to the concept of localization - a systemic alternative to corporate capitalism - and shows how...

19 min · 40,719 views · 97%

Inequality Is the Biggest Threat to the World

People often think that a certain level of inequality is normal in our societies, says the social geographer Danny Dorling. But the gap between the superrich and the rest of us has widened dramatically in the past 12 months. The author of a number of books including...

Danny Dorling · 3,527 views · 88%

The Real Climate Scam Is Business as Usual — Here's How We Challenge It

Capitalism thrives on profiting from crisis—it sold us lies about cigarettes, sugar, and opioids, and now it's doing the same with climate change. Fake solutions and disinformation aren't accidents; they're the business model.

Tim Hjersted · 873 views · unrated

The Top 100 Documentaries Inspiring the Shift to a Sustainable Paradigm (2012 Edition)

Film offers us a powerful tool to shift awareness and inspire action. By hosting community film screenings and sharing them online, they offer a method to break our dependence on the mainstream media and become the media ourselves. We don't need to wait for anyone or anything.

Films For Action · 401,339 views · 100%

Worker Cooperatives: Retooling the Solidarity Economy

Building A Solidarity Economy Under the cooperative model, workers own the business, reducing injustice because they have a stake in the community and because an individual will find it hard to exploit oneself. Workers often buy into their jobs (upfront or amortized), vote...

Sebastian A.B. · 4,078 views · 100%

Can We Talk About Sustainability Without Talking about Religion and Spirituality?

It would seem there are certain strands of thought within many religions that are highly unsustainable, for the health of individuals, society and the planet as a whole.

Tim Hjersted · 2,827 views · 100%

Why Do so Many People Get Lost in Drugs Instead of Making a Life That You Don't Need to Escape From?

"I believe, inherently, that the structures of society are driving us mad. Though most of us believe ourselves to be fairly well-adjusted, healthy individuals, we are all patients in the asylum together now."

Tim Hjersted · 278,393 views · 94%

The Global Transition Tipping Point Has Arrived - Vive la Révolution

A new post-carbon era dawns as the old fossil fuel system dies. It's time to step up. Last Friday, I posted an exclusive report about a new

Nafeez Ahmed · 10,404 views · 100%

It's a "Story Problem": What's Behind Our Messed-Up Economy

The peoples of earlier times prospered from the guidance of simple stories that offered answers to their deepest questions. We need those now more than ever.

David Korten · 2,308 views · 100%

7 Billion for Dinner? Here's How to Feed Them

Most people – even many of those who support small farms and eat organic food – believe that there’s no way to feed the global population without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, fossil fuels, biotechnology, heavy equipment, and the rest of the agribusiness arse

Steven Gorelick · 9,058 views · 75%

Rethinking modern schooling

An edited sequence for our documentary The Economics of Happiness that ultimately did not make it into the film. It offers a critical look at modern schooling in both the global North and South. With Vandana Shjiva, Manish Jain (Coordinator of the Indian NGO Shikshantar)...

2 min · 2,640 views · unrated

Sixteen Building Blocks of a Green, Entrepreneurial, Cooperative Economy

The transition from a capitalist to a cooperative economy could be one of the defining achievements of the 21st century.

Guy Dauncey · 9,700 views · 100%

How White People Got Made

'There’s a perception that whiteness is working for white people. It’s not. Whiteness is one of the biggest and most long-running scams ever perpetrated.'

Quinn Norton · 44,505 views · 72%

This Tiny Country Is Going 100 Percent Organic

In 2011, the tiny mountain nation of Bhutan announced a lofty goal: make the country’s agricultural system 100 percent organic by the year 2020. If it succeeded, it would be the first country in the world to achieve the feat. Bhutan — nestled in the Himalayas between India...

Natasha Geiling · 17,660 views · 94%

How Globalization Fuels Terrorism and Fundamentalism

For people in the modern world, there may be nothing more difficult to comprehend than the group calling itself the Islamic State, or ISIS. The beheadings, rapes, and other acts of cruelty seem beyond understanding, as does the wanton destruction of priceless ancient...

Helena Norberg-Hodge · 56,343 views · 96%

This Revolution Will Not Be Schooled

How We Are Collectively Improvising a 'New Story' About Learning

Bayo Akomolafe and Manish Jain · 3,346 views · 88%

The Demoralized Mind

Western consumer culture is creating a psycho-spiritual crisis that leaves us disoriented and bereft of purpose. How can we treat our sick culture and make ourselves well?

John Schumaker · 227,908 views · 100%

A Brief History of Happiness: How America Lost Track of the Good Life-And Where to Find It Now

For decades, we've been taught that economic growth and buying more stuff will make us happy—while trashing the planet. The good news is, there’s a better kind of happy: It starts with meaningful work, loving relationships, and a thriving natural world.

Sarah van Gelder · 2,978 views · 88%

Building a Local Peace Economy: We Have the Power

When attending meetings with peace and justice activists, I often find myself the only business person in the room. Inevitably, someone makes a comment about the evils of business, or greedy capitalists, or some other negative comment that implies business people are the...

Judy Wicks · 7,071 views · 100%

The Myth of Positivity: Why Your Pain Holds a Mighty Purpose

Of all the great myths of contemporary life, one of the most toxic is positivity. It says: there are negative and positive emotions, and only the positive ones are worth feeling, having, expressing.

Umair Haque · 247,211 views · 99%

After Brexit and Trump: Don't Demonise; Localise!

Both Trump and Brexit can be explained by the failure of mainstream political elites to address the pain inflicted on ordinary citizens in the neoliberal era. But the real solutions lie not in hatred, but relocalisation.

Helena Norberg-Hodge and Rupert Read · 15,594 views · 100%

21 Theses for a People's Ecology

The “21 Theses,” dated July 2014 and published in November 2015, marked the birth of the Social Ecology Cooperative in Paris. In May 2016 I had the opportunity to ask Patrick Farbiaz, one of its founders, what the cooperative meant by social ecology. He explained that it...

Janet Biehl and The Social Ecology Cooperative in Paris · 867 views · unrated

Our Obsolescent Economy

The modern 'throwaway culture' was born in response to the needs of industrial capital. To move beyond it, we must rediscover the beauty of repair.

Steven Gorelick · 10,791 views · 69%

But What about the Psychopath?

If something bites you, it is inside of your clothes. —Swahili proverb I have argued that change will come not from overcoming the powers-that-be, but through their transformation. I have stated that we are fundamentally the same being lo

Charles Eisenstein · 3,865 views · unrated

Farming for a Small Planet

People yearn for alternatives to industrial agriculture, but they are worried. They see large-scale operations relying on corporate-supplied chemical inputs as the only high-productivity farming model. Another approach might be kinder to the environment and less risky for...

Frances Moore Lappé · 3,743 views · 100%

Livin' the Screen Life

Important official legal disclaimer: This is a short work of fiction. Any resemblances to real people, people you may know, people you think you may know, etc., is entirely deliberate.

John Savage · 1,204 views · 100%

Globalization's Deadly Footprint

"That pollution is bad for our health will come as a surprise to no one. That pollution kills at least 9 million people every year might."

Alex Jensen · 5,959 views · 75%

Steven Pinker's Ideas Are Fatally Flawed. These Eight Graphs Show Why.

It’s time to reclaim the mantle of “Progress” for progressives. By falsely tethering the concept of progress to free market economics and centrist values, Steven Pinker has tried to appropriate a great idea for which he has no rightful claim.

Jeremy Lent · 8,667 views · unrated

To Leave or Remain: Dichotomy or Distraction?

Ever since the Brexit referendum was first announced, we have been bombarded by an array of starkly contradictory pronouncements – from the Leave camp’s now infamous claim that withdrawal from the EU would release £350 million a week for the NHS to the former Chancellor...

Helena Norberg-Hodge · 6,856 views · 79%

Degrowth: A Call for Radical Abundance

When orthodox economists first encounter the idea of degrowth, they often jump to the conclusion that the objective is to reduce GDP. And because they see GDP as equivalent to social wealth, this makes them very upset.

Jason Hickel · 32,699 views · 84%

Saving Japan's seed heritage from “free trade”

I recently had the opportunity to interview Masahiko Yamada, formerly Japan´s Minister of Agriculture and now one of the country´s foremost food sovereignty activists. We met at an international Economics of Happiness Conference in Prato, Italy, where Yamada delivered a...

Anja Lyngbaek · 2,853 views · unrated

Thinking Outside the Grid

Thirty years ago, a friend of mine published a book called 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save The Earth. It described the huge environmental benefits that would result if everyone made some simple adjustments to their way of life. Six hundred thousand gallons of gas could be...

Steven Gorelick · 7,530 views · 75%

The End of the Corporation?

It’s time to make the profit-maximising, shareholder-controlled corporation obsolete.

Marjorie Kelly · 6,591 views · unrated

As Coronavirus Opens the Door to Big Changes, the Left's Most Attractive Vision Faces Pushback

For many Americans, it’s time for a system change along the lines of the Nordic model. This has the political establishment deeply worried.

George Lakey · 1,357 views · unrated

Pandemic Response Requires Post-Growth Economic Thinking

Amid a horrific human tragedy of sickness and death, much of it taking place in hospitals staffed by brave but overworked and under-equipped doctors and nurses, we are all learning once again what it feels like when economic growth comes to a shuddering stop and the economy...

Richard Heinberg · 2,977 views · 100%

What to Do When the World is on Fire

In December of 2019, my best friend Kit took me and my partner to the place where she grew up, in the remote Thora Valley, in the pristine forested foothills of Eastern Australia’s Great Dividing Range. As we drove down Darkwood, the single road into the Thora, Kit told us...

Henry Coleman · 2,368 views · 100%

Living in the Web of Soft Climate Denial

Posted on September 7, 2016

Michael Hoexter, Ph.D. · 205 views · unrated

Thrive: The Story is Wrong but the Spirit is Right

"What is keeping us from thriving?" asks the new movie, Thrive. The answer it gives is "the global elite," the people who control the financial system that in turn controls everything else. Operating through the power institutions of our society, this elite pursues a...

Charles Eisenstein · 11,911 views · 100%

10 Reasons That Eco-Conscious People Are Happier and Live More Enjoyable Lives

An increasing foundation of scientific research shows a significant linkage between personal well being and environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. This is not coincidence; it is a profound truth of crucial importance in the quest to create sustainable societies...

Matt Mellen · 12,253 views · 100%

From Consumerism to Climate Change: 41 Outstanding Documentaries You Have to See

Over the last 7 years, Films For Action has been cataloging an online library of the best social change films that can be watched free online. Opting for quality over quantity, the site has grown slowly to include 500 documentaries and 900 short films, trailers and...

Tim Hjersted · 6,075 views · 50%

From Education to Economics: These Are The 40 Best Social Change Documentaries You Have to See

Over the last 7 years, Films For Action has been cataloging an online library of the best social change films that can be watched free online. Opting for quality over quantity, the site has grown slowly to include 500 documentaries and 900 short films, trailers and...

Tim Hjersted · 47,462 views · 92%

The Brief, Tragic Reign of Consumerism-and the Birth of a Happy Alternative

You and I consume; we are consumers. The global economy is set up to enable us to do what we innately want to do—buy, use, discard, and buy some more. If we do our job well, the economy thrives; if for some reason we fail a

Richard Heinberg · 3,532 views · 75%

Farm to Table in San Francisco is About More than Food | Final Straw (trailer)

This series of 'Short Take' interviews offer sneak peaks of characters from the upcoming documentary film "Final Straw," a film about food, earth, and happiness. This time around, we talk with Kristyn Leach, the resident farmer for Namu Gaji restaurant in San Francisco. In...

2 min · 959 views · unrated

The Meme Hustler

The Meme Hustler Tim O’Reilly’s crazy talk EVGENY MOROZOV [from The Baffler No. 22, 2013] While the brightest minds of Silicon Valley are “disrupting” whatever industry is too crippled to fend off their advances, something odd is happening to our language. Old, trusted...

Evgeny Morozov · 1,898 views · unrated

Obama's Hopelessly Wrong on the Environment -- Here's the Reality of What We Face

Based on what we know from the most recent climate science, Obama’s "all-of-the-above" energy policy is actually suicidal. Are there any self-respecting environmental organizations out there that are still behind President Obama? After his State of the Union on Tuesday...

Tara Lohan · 3,248 views · unrated

The Pursuit of Happiness: A New Development Paradigm

During the 15 years, I lived and worked in Asia as a development professional from 1978 to 1992, I witness a troubling paradox. GDP was growing, incomes were rising, there was an expanding middle class, and a few people were getting fabulously rich. Development seemed to be...

David Korten · 3,465 views · 100%

The Tao Te Ching: The Classic Manual on The Art of Living

Wisdom for aspiring leaders and change-makers of every kind

Stephen Mitchell · 168,195 views · 100%

Life in a 'Degrowth' Economy, and Why You Might Actually Enjoy it

What does genuine economic progress look like? The orthodox answer is that a bigger economy is always better, but this idea is increasingly strained by the knowledge that, on a finite planet, the economy can’t grow forever.

Samuel Alexander · 10,364 views · 100%

Down With Sustainable Development! Long Live Convivial Degrowth!

For anyone who recently attended the Fourth International Conference on Degrowth in Leipzig, Germany, listening in on conference talk, surrounded by the ecologically savvy, one quickly noticed that no one was singing the praises of sustainable...

Justin Hyatt · 2,020 views · 88%

Invisible Chains: Consumerism, Debt, and Consciousness

Critical analyses regarding the effects of "consumerism" have been a staple of Leftist theory for the past century. The Situationist International, appearing in the 1950s as an extension of Lukacs' unique brand of social analysis from the 20s, famously ridiculed the "western...

Colin Jenkins · 790 views · unrated

Why We Need Big Picture Activism

People are beginning to understand that something is fundamentally wrong, and that minor tinkering with the current system is not the answer. A critical mass is ready for fundamental change: what they need is a clear explanation of the root cause of the crises we face, and...

Helena Norberg-Hodge · 16,123 views · 100%

The Economics of Climate Change

Shifting away from an emphasis on global economic growth toward local economies provides a means to increase meaningful employment, shrink the gap between rich and poor, and tackle climate change.

Helena Norberg-Hodge · 7,327 views · 83%

Hacking the Sustainable Development Discourse

A Narrative Strategy for Changing the Story of Global Development

Joe Brewer · 420 views · unrated

Work Less, Play More

The 40-hour work week is an ingrained part of our culture, but it does very little to enrich our lives. Lucy Purdy explores alternative working models that do away with the idea of the nine-to-five

Lucy Purdy · 3,600 views · unrated

Our Culture Is Driving the World Towards Homogenization on Every Level, but We're Not Even Aware of It

A long, long time ago, an idea was born.

Tim Hjersted · 33,026 views · 75%

NY Daily News Claims FDR Unfit to Be President: "No Concrete Plans, Only Platitudes"

[The following is an imagined 1932 New York Daily News editorial board interview with Franklin Roosevelt during his presidential campaign. The Daily News comments below derive from the editorial board’s interview with Bernie Sanders on April 1, 2016. The Roosevelt statements...

Les Leopold · 14,385 views · 88%

3 Signs Corporate Work Culture Has Become Toxic to the Human Spirit

Feeling trapped on the corporate ladder? You’re not alone… our work culture has become uncaring, toxic and rather dangerous to our well-being.

Sigmund Fraud · 16,504 views · 75%

Changing Everything Except What Needs Changing: What's Missing From The Renewable Energy Debate

Among climate change activists, solutions usually center on a transition to renewable energy. There may be differences over whether this would be best accomplished by a carbon tax, bigger subsidies for wind and solar power, divestment from fossil fuel companies, massive...

Steven Gorelick · 15,022 views · 100%

Judge a System by the Health of Its Children

On Globalization and The Costs of Exporting the American Dream

Helena Norberg-Hodge and Steven Gorelick · 15,505 views · 79%

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