In these times of quarantine and social distancing, it can be tough to fill all the hours in your day. Climate champions who are used to participating in rallies and tree-planting campaigns may find the moratorium on public gatherings especially challenging as they do their best to stay sustainable at home.
To help combat cabin fever and keep you in touch with climate issues, biodiversity, and the world’s natural beauty, the C4C team has compiled a Film4Climate list of eco-friendly films and TV recommendations that you can stream at home!
Did you know Disney+ offers documentaries? We recommend: Into the Okavango, Before the Flood, Oceans, Penguins and America’s National Parks. Many of Disney’s kid-friendly feature films also include climate-positive messages. Try Brother Bear, Wall-E, Finding Nemo or Moana for your next family movie night.
If you’re looking to get your Netflix fix, they’re offering some eye-popping docs as well, including Chasing Coral, Terra, A Plastic Ocean, Cowspiracy, and Mission Blue. If you want something binge-worthy, try the stunning nature series Our Planet and Night on Earth. If you’d like a more allegorical take on the damage to our environment, check out Okja, a moving 2017 film from Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer). Down to Earth With Zac Efron is another option if you're looking for a series that will motivate you to take climate action while avoiding doom-and-gloom negativity.
Maybe you’re more into YouTube. As you might expect, options abound here. Feature film-wise, you’ve got beautiful contemporary options like Leave No Trace and Wild as well as classics like Hayao Miyakazi’s Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. YouTube is also the place to find a lot of serialized content, from TED Talks on climate change to web series like Climate Countdown, Antarctic Extremes, and Years of Living Dangerously. For assorted shorter-form climate content, consider giving our very own Connect4Climate channel a gander!
If you’re thinking about saying hello to Hulu, I Am Greta, featuring #Fridays4Future leader Greta Thunberg, is streaming there now! Hulu’s also the home of the whimsical Woman at War and the climate-colored disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow. On HBO, we recommend An Apology to Elephants and Ice on Fire.
On top of all of the above? Amazon’s got a cornucopia of climate content too. From documentaries like Al Gore’s famous An Inconvenient Truth (and its sequel), the music-driven 1.5 Stay Alive, and Luc Jaquet’s Antarctica: Ice and Sky to dramatic offerings like the legal thriller Dark Waters, the old-school sci-fi Silent Running, and the fantastical adventure Beasts of the Southern Wild, it’s safe to say this platform’s got something for everyone. This Changes Everything offers a community-focused look at the economics of climate change and climate action, Tomorrow provides a positive perspective on how we can remake our world for the better, and The Human Element takes an intimate look at climate impacts in Middle America. You can find Years of Living Dangerously, a Connect4Climate collaboration, on Amazon too!
Last but not least, we encourage you to survey the online cinematic offerings of the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, as well as those of Films for the Earth and PBS. And if you happen to live in Mexico City, our partners at Ecocinema are bringing complimentary watch-from-your-window screenings to different parts of town!
Have fun, stay safe, stay sustainable, and stay climate-conscious! Let’s weather this storm together and come out the other side ready to stand up for our planet.
