Movies To Inspire: Sustainability Flicks

Four films to encourage, excite and enlighten the socially responsible filmgoer

Film uses real people and real locations to tell real-world stories – the human experience, literally in motion. It is, then, an ideal vehicle for telling stories of sustainability, a sector that itself strives to make real-world impacts. Below, we’ve listed our four favourite sustainability movies to encourage, excite and enlighten the socially responsible filmgoer.

Honourable Mentions

• Norma Rae (1979), Martin Ritt: Sally Field delivers another masterful performance in this drama about unionization in rural North Carolina.
• Food, Inc. (2008), Robert Kenner: An examination of corporate farming and its effects on animals and employees.
• Migrant Dreams (2016), Min Sook Lee: Awarded the 2017 Canadian Hillman Prize for Journalism, this documentary follows a group of migrant workers who resist exploitation from their employers and the Canadian government.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Davis Guggenheim

A decade ago, when “sustainability” was still a buzzword, Al Gore’s environmental passion project correctly predicted the impending threat of climate change. Now, as seemingly endless environmental crises grip the planet, we’re left wondering how we got here. Some say the “former next president of the United States” earned the last laugh, but this film is no joke. Though undervalued upon release, Mr. Gore’s rousing sustainability sermon remains a powerful call to action for the socially conscious, and a shocking eye-opener for those who are only now understanding the dangers of environmental neglect. Progress since 2006 has been miniscule, but the film’s nagging relevance serves as a reminder that even the noblest pursuits require tireless advocacy. As film critic A.O. Scott once said: “That An Inconvenient Truth should not have to exist is a reason to be grateful that it does.”

Mr. Gore on the Earth’s disappearing glaciers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hFxG-8I0Go

Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Jennifer Baichwal

Unlike the other movies on this list, Manufactured Landscapes is not driven by an overt moral agenda. Intentionally neutral, the film asks some unsettling questions: Can unfettered corporate production be beautiful? Is environmental destruction necessary to advance societies? And what is the cost of reducing cost? As photographer Edward Burtynsky travels through China, capturing some of the country’s most astounding industrial creations – a kilometer-long clothes iron factory; a dam that has displaced more than one million people – notions of right and wrong blur and culpability becomes a moving target. (“If the film was didactic, it would imply an easy answer,” director Jennifer Baichwal once said). More a meditation than a revelation, Manufactured Landscapes leaves the philosophical heavy lifting to the audience. And that’s the point.

The film’s opening scene, an ostensibly never-ending factory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn3BP6nVheA

WALL·E (2008), Andrew Stanton

As an adorable love story about two cartoon robots, you almost forget that WALL·E is set against the most horrific of backdrops: a dystopian future in which the Earth has become a giant trash pile and the entire human species has devolved into a gaggle of ignoramuses living on an intergalactic cruise ship. Amid all the scope and sight gags and sentimentality that make WALL·E a heartwarming family adventure, the film also warns its audience about the perils of consumption and the willful ignorance that inevitably brings ecological destruction. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Through the empathy and bravery of our titular hero, we’re reminded that people from the most humble beginnings are capable of creating positive change, and that humans – despite their propensity for tunnel vision and complacency – are innately driven to “live” and not merely survive.

WALL·E’s terrifying vision of the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5GqwtuP-t4

The Big Short (2015), Adam Mackay

Adam Mackay’s send up of the 2007–2008 financial crisis is as frantic and funny as it is frustrating. The Big Short achieves the improbable, at once educating its audience on arcane concepts like collaterized debt obligations, while at the same time delivering a slick and inventive piece of Hollywood entertainment. Based on Michael Lewis’s 2010 book of the same name, the movie’s story is outrageous: a group of financial insiders, believing America’s big banks have been corrupted by arrogance and greed, predict the imminent global fallout and bet against the economy in attempt to get rich themselves. The Big Short’s almost too crazy to be true, and that makes it all the more devastating. While the movie dazzles with witty writing, charming performances and filmic bravura, we all know how this ends. The systemic absence of transparency and accountability results in the financial ruin of millions of people, and the pervasive distrust of the world’s wealthiest institutions.

Ryan Gosling’s Jarred Vennett explains America’s housing problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hG4X5iTK8M

Related – On Our Shelves: The Works’ Favourite Sustainability Books

Did we forget any? Let us know in the comments.