Every week the PICA team gets together and watches a documentary in topics related to sustainability, environmental issues, food justice and more! Check out which documentaries we have previously watched.
Documentaries are a fun and educational way to learn about issues happening in our world today. Not only do documentaries provide objective and factual information but offer us an opportunity to gain different perspectives. Below you will find a list of documentaries that have been watched by our PICA team. We hope this list will provide you with insights for current issues.
The Need to Grow (2018)
Save the soil. Save the world.
The need to grow delivers the importance of healthy soil. This documentary touches on the rapid decline in soil health and ways in which people are trying to find ways to replenish and restore it. By exploring ways to localize sustainable food systems, this documentary inspires many to begin exploring methods in growing sustainable food. The documentary can be found for FREE Here.
Chasing Coral (2017)
What lies below reveals what lies ahead.
Chasing Coral informs viewers the importance of coral reefs and how they are beginning to vanish around the world. With the help of divers, photographers and scientists, this documentary takes us into an insight to uncover why the reefs are disappearing and discover life underwater. This documentary can be found on Netflix.
13th (2016)
"In many ways, the so- called war on drugs was a war on communities of color, a war on black communities, a war on latino communities" Angela Davis
The documentary 13th discusses the history of racial inequality in the United States and focuses on how many of the prisons in the U.S. are filled with African Americans. This documentary can be found on Netflix.
Mission Blue (2014)
"You're there with every ounce of what you've got. You want to save that child. Our ocean is that child, and it needs saving". Sylvia Earle
Mission Blue explores and discusses the life and work of Sylvia Earle, whom is an oceanographer, marine biologist, and environmentalist. In this documentary you follow a journey with Earle to discover why we should protect the oceans from pollution, climate change, as well as overfishing. This documentary can be found on Netflix.
The World According to Monsanto (2008)
We all have PCBs in our bodies, the polar bears and the penguins have PCBs, and what has happened is that in the past there were a few sites where PCBs where released, but over time they have gone into the air, they've gone into the water, they've transported so that the whole world is now contaminated with PCBs. The issue is that many diseases are caused by PCB exposure; the one everyone knows about is cancer."
The world according to Monsanto discusses and exposes the agricultural practices and the aim to dominate the food supply with genetically modified products and seeds harmful to human health and the environment. This documentary can be found on Youtube.
Into the Inferno (2016)
"It is hard to take your eyes of the fire that burns deep under our feet". Werner Herzog
This documentary discusses and attempts to understand the relationship with volcanoes. Werner Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer travel the globe and visit volcanoes in Indonesia, Ethiopia and North Korea to discover and talk with the people who live in these locations to understand and learn more about these fascinating wonders! This documentary can be found on Netflix.
Cowspiracy (2014)
"Animal agriculture produces 65% of the world's nitrous oxide, a gas with a global warming potential 296 times greater that CO2, per pound. Yet all we hear about is fossil fuels". Kip Anderson
This documentary investigates how animal agriculture should be one of the most important issues being discussed in order to solve environmental and sustainability issues. This documentary can be found on Netflix.
Fantastic Fungi (2019)
"Mushrooms are a big part of the story, but they remain a mystery. In fact, it's amazing what we don't know about mushrooms. We know more about bacteria and plants and certainly animals than we do about mushrooms."
A descriptive time-lapse journey about the magical, mysterious and medicinal world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth that began 3.5 billion years ago (Description provided by Google). This documentary can be purchased on Vimeo!
Islands Of The Future (2014)
"Amid rising oil and gas prices and dwindling resources, tiny islands off the coast of Europe are rethinking the future of energy." Netflix
An intriguing documentary series on how the islands off the coast of Spain, Scotland and other European countries are creating their own solutions to the world's energy crisis (Description provided by Google). This documentary can be found on Netflix.