Environmental Studies

A revolutionary group of activists, scientists, farmers, and politicians band together in a global movement of “Regenerative Agriculture” that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.

River’s End explores the global water crisis, using California as a microcosm. It shows how water politics that led to the draining of the Owens Valley by Los Angeles, made famous by the film Chinatown, continue to this day in ongoing efforts to take ever more water from Northern California’s San Francisco Bay estuary. Except this time, the water grab is at the hands of industrial agriculture and its powerful corporate investors. River’s End inspires viewers to learn where their water comes from so that we can save our rivers and the ecosystems and communities that depend upon them.

20 years ago, a young group of social entrepreneurs joined a movement to change the world through the pursuit of an alternative economic model and practice of conscious commerce. Seeding Change: The Power of Conscious Commerce is about “triple bottom line” businesses that consider the social, environmental and financial impacts of their companies and address some of today’s most challenging issues. Seeding Change is an award-winning documentary empowering viewers to be part of the solution by voting with their dollars and supporting the brands and products that align with their values.

Filmmaker James Redford embarks on a colorful personal journey into the dawn of the clean energy era as it creates jobs, turns profits, and makes communities stronger and healthier across the US. Unlikely entrepreneurs in communities from Georgetown, TX to Buffalo, NY reveal pioneering clean energy solutions while James’ discovery of how clean energy works, and what it means at a personal level, becomes the audiences’ discovery too. Reaching well beyond a great story of technology and innovation, “Happening” explores issues of human resilience, social justice, embracing the future, and finding hope for our survival.

Eating Animals tells the story of the beginning of the end of factory farming. Through the intimate narratives of several farmers dedicated to bringing their trade back to its roots, the film explores the notion of stepping away from the practices of the past 40 years that have polluted our environment, endangered our health, and caused us all to be complicit in the inhumane treatment of animals. Looking at the costs we’ve incurred as our country has become dominated by massive industrial complexes, Eating Animals paints a picture of a future where traditional farming is the only way forward.

A decade after AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH brought the climate crisis into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Former Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes – in moments both private and public – as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.

Climate change is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced – and it is also our greatest opportunity. We have the solutions we need, but we are in a race against the clock to implement them in time.
Academy Award®-Winning documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson (Inside Job, No End in Sight) turns his lens to address worldwide climate change challenges and solutions. Featuring narration by award-winning actor Oscar Isaac, TIME TO CHOOSE leaves audiences understanding not only what is wrong, but what can to be done to fix this global threat.

Filmed in nine countries and five continents over four years, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change.
Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller of the same name, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond.
Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization a third of all food produced worldwide is thrown away. In Europe, this is equivalent to 89 tons of groceries per year. How can we stop this waste? Author and cook David Gross goes on a road trip through Europe, cooking exclusively what others throw away. He meets unconventional top chefs, food activists, scientists and gourmets and forces us to question our everyday consumer lifestyle.

The Paris Agreement is a milestone in history that will influence decades to come. For the first time 195 countries committed to take action against climate change. The key goal of keeping the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C.
This is the only film team that got access behind closed doors of the negotiations, to reveal the clash of forces that will shape our future: national self-interest against destruction of countries, rich versus poor, victims against profiteers. A reflection of the global community told by the high-ranking figures who played a key role in the negotiations. Can this agreement save our planet?

By 2050, the world population will grow to ten billion people. In the midst of the heated debate about food security comes this broad and analytic look into the enormous spectrum of global food production and distribution – from artificial meat, insects, industrial farming to trendy self-cultivation. Director, best-selling author and Food Fighter Valentin Thurn (box office hit Taste The Waste) seeks for worldwide solutions and gives room for innovation and inspiring visions for our future.

Chemical flame retardants are everywhere. Our furniture. Our homes. Our bodies. But do they work as promised? And are they making us sick?
The three chemical companies producing flame retardants would prefer that we not ask these questions, and they’ve spent millions of dollars on lobbyists, publicists and influencers to ensure that we don’t. Through the personal stories of a cancer-surviving firefighter, a renowned chemist, and a determined young Maine legislator, TOXIC HOT SEAT reveals the courage of brave citizens willing to fight for the truth against a shadowy nexus of money and politics.

What was it that saved Tokyo from a nuclear disaster? Narrated by Willem Dafoe, this is the story of the foreign journalists who were are allowed to enter the Fukushima-Daiichi power plant after waiting two years to uncover the truth about the 2011 accident hidden behind those walls. The ex-premier Naoto Kan reveals the events as they really happened. Using digital reconstruction to elucidate the scientific complexities of the accident, the film uncovers the layers of accountability at play.

BORN TO BE FREE is a revelatory investigative film made by three intrepid, free-diving journalists Gaya, Tanya and Julia, about the global trade in wild sea mammals.
Their journey takes us to the most remote corners of Russia and witnesses, for the very first time, the shocking treatment that whales, dolphins and walruses are subjected to as we discover the corruption at the heart of this cruel international business.