These are just a few of the many films—with environmental themes—that have come out in the last few years (between 2016 and 2021). The listing also includes a few TV programs. These films and shows (mostly documentaries) touch on all sorts of topics, e.g., food, soil, agriculture/farming, indigenous people, climate change, social and environmental movements, animals, trees and forests, energy, and inspiring leaders and scientists. We’ll continue to add more films to this listing throughout 2021, as we learn of others. We have also posted listings of earlier films (from before 2016); scroll to the bottom of this post to find links to those.
Click on each of the links below (or go to IMDB.com) to see previews/trailers, reviews, and descriptions of each film. Also, educators should note that many of these films are available for free to teachers, and their websites often have educational resources for teachers/students to use.
Dark Waters (feature movie, based on a true story re. PFAS and DuPont)
Percy vs Goliath (feature movie, based on a true story re. a farmer and Monsanto)
The Condor & the Eagle
Kiss the Ground
Gather
The Biggest Little Farm
The Serengeti Rules
Climate Solutions 101 (Project Drawdown’s 6-part video series)
Before the Flood
Living in the Future’s Past
Being the Change: A New Kind of Climate Documentary
Inside the Megafire
The Story of Plastic
A Plastic Ocean
RiverBlue
Power Struggle
Life Off Grid
Spaceship Earth
Hard Nox (from the Dirty Money TV series)
The Beekeeper (short film)
You’ve Been Trumped Too
Animals:
Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story
My Octopus Teacher
Artifishal: The Fight to Save Wild Salmon
Trees and Plants:
Intelligent Trees
Fantastic Fungi
The Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees
The Secret World of Trees (TV series)
Inspiring People:
End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock
I Am Greta: A Force of Nature
Jane Goodall: The Hope
Rachel Carson
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
For other media on inspiring environmental leaders, check out the short videos about Goldman Prize winners.
Also check out Ecoflix [NEW] and WaterBear: new streaming platforms dedicated to environmental films and media. And take a look at The Years Project videos and shows, as well as PBS shows such as Our Planet, Nature, Earth: A New Wild, and NOVA, and BBC shows such as A Perfect Planet and Planet Earth.
Are there other relevant, recent (or forthcoming) films or TV programs that you’ve seen and would recommend to others? If so, please mention those in the Comments section below.
Green Film Festivals
These are a few of the annual film fests that I’m aware of; this is not an exhaustive list. Please let everyone know about other green film festivals by contributing a Comment. Many of the festivals’ websites feature video clips and a some even stream entire films (short and full-length films), and they list many additional, new, independent films, beyond what I’ve listed above, including some brand new ones that haven’t been screened widely yet.
- Environmental Film Festival, Washington, DC
- One Earth Film Festival, Chicago area, IL
- Wild and Scenic Film Festival, Nevada City, CA (and other locations around the country: bring it to your town!)
- Mountainfilm Festival, Telluride, CO
- Environmental Film Festival at Yale, New Haven, CT
- San Francisco Green Film Festival, San Francisco, CA
- Planet in Focus environmental film festival, Toronto, Canada
- UK Green Film Festival, UK
See the Green Film Network to find film festivals in many countries.
Our previous film posts:
March 12, 2021
While almost all of our posts can be used to inform or educate yourself or others, here are some of our posts that provide some direct resources for learning (for adults or children/youth). Many of the resources in these listings are also very entertaining: