Q: I’m tired of binge-watching dramas on Netflix. What are some of the best environmental documentaries that have come out recently?
— SCOTT ANDERSEN, JOPLIN, MISSOURI
A: While potent in its day as the film that put climate change on the public radar, “An Inconvenient Truth,” now a decade old, is hardly the last word in green documentaries anymore.
Perhaps that honor will go to “Disobedience,” a 35-minute paean to how grass-roots activism can be the lever that finally topples the dominance of fossil fuels. The film’s producers hope to spark new interest in fighting global warming.
Released April 30 via hundreds of self-organized watch parties and dozens of independent cinemas — while hundreds of thousands more viewers stream it free online — “Disobedience” includes interviews with some of the most renowned voices in the global discourse around social movements and climate change. Conversations with environmental luminaries including author/activist Bill McKibben and filmmaker and globalization critic Naomi Klein are interwoven with riveting verité footage of everyday people organizing and fighting for a livable climate.
Another new climate-oriented doc is “The Cross of the Moment,” which producers describe as “a deep-green, deep-time discussion of the environmental crisis ... that attempts to connect the dots between Fermi’s Paradox, climate change, capitalism and collapse.” The 80-minute film, available free on Vimeo, features interviews with top scientists and public intellectuals woven into a narrative. A host of experts discuss humanity’s prospects for surviving catastrophic climate change.
Another solid choice is last year’s “Revolution,” an epic adventure into the evolution of life on Earth and the revolution to save it. Director Rob Stewart, best known for his award-winning 2008 doc “Sharkwater,” spent four years and traveled to 15 countries to produce “Revolution,” which brings viewers face-to-face with sharks, lemurs, sea horses and cuttlefish, among other amazing creatures. It showcases activists around the world who are winning the battle to save the ecosystems we all depend on for survival.
Still others include “Fossil Free,” which chronicles the mission of impassioned climate activists around the world; “Our Rising Oceans,” where scientists in Antarctica show us how climate change is already spawning dire consequences; “Fractured Earth,” in which everyday Pennsylvanians take on Big Oil in trying to keep fracking off their land; and “Oil and Water,” an examination of the uneasy alliance between the fishing and oil and gas industries in coastal Louisiana.
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