#1. Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Storyline: This experimental film looks at the world and more specifically the effect man has had on the landscape and the environment. Without narration, the film shows the world in a pristine condition and untouched: blue skies, beautiful landscapes and endless vistas. The man-made world is much less appealing. Essentially a montage using a variety of film techniques to provide a visually stunning montage of images.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: man, woman, sailor, factory worker, bleak, profound, powerful ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#3. Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk (2008)

Storyline: Robert Redford narrates this environmentally conscious documentary, which offers a rafting tour of the majestic Grand Canyon. Throughout the adventure, the filmmakers question the water consumption habits of contemporary Americans, while contrasting these current trends with the practices of the Native Americans who previously inhabited the Colorado River basin. The documentarians also explore ways in which Americans could develop a more harmonious relationship with their natural water sources.

Plot Keywords: environmentalist, explorer, native american, spectacular, rousing, grand canyon, water conservation ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#4. Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)

Storyline: With gasoline prices approaching $4/gallon, fossil fuel shortages, unrest in oil producing regions around the globe and mainstream consumer adoption and adoption of the hybrid electric car (more than 140,000 Prius' sold this year), this story couldn't be more relevant or important. The foremost goal in making this movie is to educate and enlighten audiences with the story of this car, its place in history and in the larger story of our car culture and how it enables our continuing addiction to foreign oil. This is an important film with an important message that not only calls to task the officials who squelched the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, but all of the other accomplices, government, the car companies, Big Oil, even Eco-darling Hydrogen as well as consumers, who turned their backs on the car and embrace embracing instead the SUV. Our documentary investigates the death and resurrection of the electric car, as well as the role of renewable energy and sustainable living in our country's future; issues which affect everyone from progressive liberals to the neo-conservative right.—Richard D. Titus

Plot Keywords: narrator, george w. bush, profound, rousing, california, washington, d.c., global warming ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#5. Manufactured Landscapes (2006)

Storyline: Jennifer Baichwal's cameras follow Edward Burtynsky (1955- ) as he visits what he calls manufactured landscapes: slag heaps, e-waste dumps, huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, and a place in Bangladesh where ships are taken apart for recycling. In China, workers gather outside the factory, exhorted by their team leader to produce more and make fewer errors. A woman assembles a circuit breaker, and women and children are seen picking through debris or playing in it. Burtynsky concludes with a visit to Shanghai, the world's fastest growing city, where wealth and poverty, high-rises and old neighborhoods are side by side.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: photographer, director, crew member, factory worker, child, striking, fascinating ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#6. Oil Crash (2006)

Storyline: In 1956, geologist Marion King Hubbard proposed the peak oil theory: Once easily extractable oil reserves are depleted, demand will exceed supply and the natural-gas-dependent global economy will eventually collapse. This documentary argues that Hubbard was correct, drawing upon the testimony of a wide range of experts, concluding oil supplies will peak by 2020 and that alternative energy solutions will not be found quickly enough to provide a viable alternative.

Plot Keywords: geologist, congressman, banker, professor, car dealer, government official, disheartening ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#7. McLibel (2005)

Storyline: McDonald's loved using the UK libel laws to suppress criticism. Major media organisations like the BBC and The Guardian crumbled and apologised. But then they sued gardener Helen Steel and postman Dave Morris. In the longest trial in English legal history, the "McLibel Two" represented themselves against McDonald's £10 million legal team. Every aspect of the corporation's business was cross-examined: from junk food and McJobs, to animal cruelty, environmental damage and advertising to children. Outside the courtroom, Dave brought up his young son alone and Helen supported herself working nights in a bar. McDonald's tried every trick in the book against them. Legal manoeuvres. A visit from Ronald McDonald. Top executives flying to London for secret settlement negotiations. Even spies. Seven years later, in February 2005, the marathon legal battle finally concluded at the European Court of Human Rights. And the result took everyone by surprise - especially the British Government. McLibel is not just about hamburgers. It is about the importance of freedom of speech now that multinational corporations are more powerful than countries. Filmed over ten years by no-budget Director Franny Armstrong, McLibel is the David and Goliath story of two people who refused to say sorry. And in doing so, changed the world.—Lizzie Gillet

Plot Keywords: environmentalist, lawyer, fiery, fascinating, england, courtroom, london ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#8. 2040 (2019)

Storyline: 2040 is an innovative feature documentary that looks to the future, but is vitally important NOW. Award-winning director Damon Gameau embarks on journey to explore what the future would look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary footage with dramatized sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board for his daughter and the planet.—GoodThing Productions

Plot Keywords: filmmaker, expert, environmentalist, passionate, moving, inspiring, earth ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#9. Where the Green Ants Dream (1984)

Storyline: The geologist Lance Hackett is employed by an Australian mining company to map the subsoil of a desert area covered with ant hills prior to a possible uranium extraction. His work is impeded by some aborigines who explain that this is the place where the green ants dream. Disturbing their dreaming will destroy humanity they claim. Hackett informs the company which offers various "solutions" such as a large amount of money or a percentage of a possible revenue. Invited on a trip to a city some of the aborigines sees a military aeroplane and express the wish to own it. The company buys it and gives it to the aborigines as a sign of good will. A runway is made in the desert and the plane is flown to the location. All negotiations concerning the area fail and the dispute goes to a court of the Commonwealth. Parties and experts are heard, obstacles are met such as an aborigine who is the sole survivor of his tribe (and language) and therefore no-one understands what he is saying. Two of the aborigines take off in the plane despite that there is very little fuel left. The mining company wins legally and the aborigines morally. Some aborigines arrives from the mountains and tells about a big winged ant that had fallen from the sky.—Frank Dabelstein <frank@dabelstein.dk>

Plot Keywords: geologist, aborigine, tribal leader, lawyer, businessman, creative, offbeat ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#11. Once Upon a Forest (1993)

Storyline: This animated wildlife film provides an environmental friendly message that humans are a malicious, careless breed. Three cherubic little animals have to rescue their friend who has been overcome by poisonous gas.—John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

Plot Keywords: mouse, mole, hedgehog, wren, human, thrilling, charming ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#12. Go Further (2003)

Storyline: "Go Further", the new film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann, explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The film follows actor Woody Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bio-fuelled bus-ride down the Pacific Coast Highway. Their goal? To show the people they encounter that there are viable alternatives to our habitual, environmentally-destructive behaviors. The travellers include a yoga-teacher, a raw food chef, a hemp-activist, a junk-food addict, and a college student who suspends her life to impulsively hop aboard. We see the hostility these pilgrims encounter, and watch as their ideas are challenged from within and without. We meet an entrepreneur who runs a paper company that does not harm trees; an organic farmer who believes Nature is his partner; a man who teaches environmental activists to use humor as a strategic weapon. And throughout, we see Harrelson test his belief that the transformation of our planet begins with the small personal transformations that are within the grasp of each and every one of us, after which... we'll go further.—Vesta, Solomon

Plot Keywords: woody harrelson, activist, student, playful, lighthearted, highway, bus ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#13. Harry and the Hendersons (1987)

Storyline: Returning from a hunting trip in the forest, the Henderson family's car hits an animal in the road. At first they fear it was a man, but when they examine the "body" they find it's a "bigfoot". They think it's dead so they decide to take it home (there could be some money in this..). As you guessed, "it" isn't dead. Far from being the ferocious monster they fear "Harry" to be, he's a friendly giant. In their attempts to keep Harry a secret, the Henderson's have to hide him from the authorities and a man, who has made it his goal in life, to catch a "bigfoot".

Plot Keywords: father, wife, daughter, son, creature, touching, winsome ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#14. The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Storyline: Dr. Helen Benson is summoned to a military facility with several other scientists when an alien spacecraft of sorts arrives in New York City. Aboard is a human-like alien and a giant robot of immense size and power. The alien identifies himself as Klaatu and says he has come to save the Earth. The US military and political authorities see him as a threat however and decide to use so-called intensive interrogation techniques on him but Dr. Benson decides to facilitate his escape. When she learns exactly what he means when he says he is there to save the Earth, she tries to convince him to change his intentions.

Plot Keywords: alien, scientist, doctor, stepson, robot, professor, bleak ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#15. Magic in the Water (1995)

Storyline: Radio psychologist Jack Black takes his children Joshua and Ashley on a 'vacation' to a lake in British Columbia. While he grinds away at work the children discover that the famous local lake monster "Orky" may not be just a gimmick to attract tourists after all. In fact, Orky may enable them to get closer to their workaholic dad, and help stop local polluters who are dumping toxic waste into Orky's home.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

Plot Keywords: sister, brother, father, radio host, native american, monster, uplifting ...

Movie Details Click Here!