Best Documentaries About Going Green

If you’re in the market for an educational feature about the environment, we have just the movies for you. Whether you’re a teacher who wants to show their class cool films about recycling or you’re hoping to learn more about the environment, the list below contains the best documentaries about going green.

• Chasing Ice:

  This 2012 docu-film showcases the efforts of James Balog, a nature photographer wanted to capture the effects of climate change on glaciers. The great thing about Chasing Ice is that it takes us out of our own elements and onto the ice.

  Jeff Orlowski, the film’s director, and two EIS videographers camped out for several weeks to preserve on film 7.4 cubic kilometres of ice crashing off the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland. The glacier is the real star of the movie and this isn’t your ordinary block of ice – the Jakobshavn Glacier supposedly created the ice that sank the Titanic.

• The 11th Hour:

  Speaking of Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio is the creator, producer and narrator of this documentary about how we’re harming our planet. Directed by Leila Conners Peterson and Nadia Conners, this 2007 film focuses on mass species extinction, deforestation, global warming and the depletion of the ocean’s habitats. The 11th Hour offers a bleak view of the future showing us how we’re hurting the Earth. Though, it does mention how we can potentially fix it.

• Dirt! The Movie:

  Jamie Lee Curtis narrates this 2009 documentary directed by Gene Rosow and Bill Benenson. The film delves into the symbiotic relationship between us and the soil we stand on.

  Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, this movie shows us how much we need dirt to build a self-sustaining eco-system and how we’ve already wasted most of it by being irresponsible with our agriculture and building choices.

• Gasland:

  In 2010, Gasland was released. Directed by Josh Fox, the film shows companies in the United States that rely on natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracking. This documentary exposes the underlying pollution that results from fracking and what it’s doing to our air and water supply.

• Elemental:

  Three individuals tell their environmental story from different parts of the globe. Directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee and Gayatri Roshan, the movie shows how each person profiled has a deep connection with nature and no matter where you live, conservation is important. Elemental exposes the most unrelenting ecological tests faced in Canada (the development of the Tar Sands), India (the constant pollution of the Ganges river), and Australia (the need for better technology to stop global warming).

Have a favourite film that’s not on the list? Let us know so we can include it on our next blog!