To aid in the selection of video's for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas.
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This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
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100 Years
100 YEARS documents the David vs. Goliath story of Elouise Cobell's courageous fight for justice for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans who were cheated out of billions of dollars by the United States Government.
Over 100 years ago, the United States Government broke up numerous Indian reservations and allotted millions of acres to 300,000 individual Indians. They promised to manage their land and send lease payments for oil, gas, timber, and grazing to the Indian Trust Fund, but instead the Department of the Interior grossly mismanaged the money owed them. As the Treasurer of the Blackfeet tribe, Elouise Cobell noticed issues with the trust account and raised questions about the missing money which lead her into a 30-year fight that resulted in the largest class action suit ever filed against the federal government.
Streaming Video
11th hour. 2008, 1 videodisc (92 min.). Explores the indelible footprint that humans have left on this planet, and the catastrophic effects of environmental neglect and abuse, and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity. DVD 4175
A burning question propaganda and the denial of climate change. 2012, 1 videodisc (55 min.). "Paula Kehoe's fascinating and clarifying look at the debate surrounding global warming explores the striking disconnect between the relatively clear-cut concerns of the world's most prominent scientists and the maze of speculation, rhetorical posturing, and outright misinformation that attaches to this issue whenever it's taken up by politicians, PR specialists, and political pundits. Mixing a localized focus on Ireland with insights from scientists and leaders from around the world, the film serves as both a primer on climate science and a penetrating analysis of media framing and the science of perception management"--Container. DVD 10638
A Dangerous Game
A Dangerous Game is the incendiary documentary that reveals the eco-impact of luxury golf resorts around the world and their contribution to global drought. Featuring exclusive interviews with Alec Baldwin, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump, the film takes viewers on an international journey to a World Heritage site in Croatia; the extravagant desert city of Dubai, the explosion of new but supposedly illegal courses in China and back to the filmmaker's native Scotland, where Trump continues his controversial building.
Streaming video
A fierce green fire the battle for a living planet. 2012, 1 streaming video file (101 min.). Divided into five "acts", the film is an exploration of the environmental movement--grassroots and global activism--spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. Streaming video and DVD 6822
A Plastic Ocean
An international team of adventurers, researchers, and Ocean ambassadors go on a mission around the globe to uncover the shocking truth about what is truly lurking beneath the surface our seemingly pristine ocean. The result will astound viewers, just as it did our adventurers, who captured never-before-seen images of marine life, plastic pollution, and its ultimate consequences for human health.
DVD 16048
A River Changes Course
Twice a year in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap River changes course, while life for the Cambodian people continue to flow in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth and of creation and destruction. The director spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians as they struggled to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt. A breathtaking and unprecedented journey from the remote, mountainous jungles and floating cities of the Cambodian countryside to the bustling garment factories of modern Phnom Penh, it traces a devastating and beautiful story of an ancient culture ravaged by globalization.
Streaming video
A sea change. 2009, 1 streaming video file (83 min.). "Documents how the pH balance has changed dramatically since the beginning of the industrial revolution: a 30% increase in acidification ... Experts predict that over the next century, steady increases in carbon dioxide emissions and the continued rise in the acidity of the oceans will cause most of the world's fisheries to experience a total bottom-up collapse -- a state that could last for millions of years ..."--Container. Streaming video
Addicted to plastic. 2007, 1 videodisc (85 min.). A global journey investigating the accumulation of plastic debris and exploring possible solutions to its toxicity, recycling, and biodegradability. DVD 5204 and Streaming video
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
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.
DVD 14955 and Streaming video
An inconvenient truth. 2006, 1 videodisc (96 min.). Former Vice President Al Gore explains the facts of global warming, presents arguments that the dangers of global warning have reached the level of crisis, and addresses the efforts of certain interests to discredit the anti-global warming cause. Between lecture segments, Gore discusses his personal commitment to the environment, sharing anecdotes from his experiences. DVD 2360
Angel Azul
Angel Azul tells the story of one artist’s inspiring attempt to draw attention to the perilous situation coral reefs currently face worldwide. Jason DeCaires Taylor is an eco-sculptor who casts cement statues from live human models and installs them on the ocean floor to create an artificial coral reef. The story follows the making of an angel, a symbol of hope, with wings made from live fan coral. She will reside in an underwater museum alongside 400 of Jason’s statues located off the coast of Cancún in the National Marine Park, El Museo Subacuatico De Arte (MUSA). Over time the statues grow coral, provide habitat for marine life and a diversion for tourists, offering the natural reefs a reprieve from heavy usage. But when the coral that has been growing on the statues starts to die, issues related to waste water pollution and rising sea temperatures become evident. Through local experts and scientists in the field, the full scope of the problem is revealed. Jason faces his own problems in keeping his workshop afloat, but never tires from his efforts to spread the message about this valuable ecosystem that is in grave danger of disappearing completely if steps are not taken to prevent its demise. Through the hauntingly beautiful underwater world created by this incredible eco-sculptor, we are reminded that everything connects.
Streaming video
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
ANTARCTICA: A YEAR ON ICE is a visually stunning journey to the end of the world. Guided by nature photographer Anthony Powell, we experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most severe environment on Earth along with the hardy and devoted people who call it home year-round. It has had a theatrical release in the US and New Zealand, and has screened at numerous festivals around the world and has won many awards.
DVD 12661 and Streaming video
At the Fork
A timely and refreshingly unbiased look at how farm animals are raised for our consumption, "At the Fork" follows filmmaker and omnivore John Papola, together with his vegetarian wife Lisa, as they investigate our the way our agricultural system produces animal products for human consumption.
With unprecedented access to large-scale conventional farms, Papola asks the tough questions behind every hamburger, glass of milk and baby-back rib. What he discovers are not heartless industrialists, but America's farmers -- real people who, along with him, are grappling with the moral dimensions of farming animals for food.
Streaming video
Atlantic
Janet Culver placed a personal ad for a fishing companion, and slowly fell in love with the man who replied. But her dreams were shattered when tragedy struck and they were shipwrecked. The horrors of being stranded for days in a small dinghy are reconstructed in this film, which includes an interview with Janet Culver herself. A BBC Production. A part of the Disaster series (Series 1).
Streaming video
Bag it. 2010, 1 videodisc (78 min.). Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes that we then throw away. But where is 'away?' Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life and human health? Follows 'everyman' Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10488
Banking on disaster. 2002?, 1 streaming video file (78 min.). A three part documentary filmed over a ten year period exposes the detrimental effects of deforestation interlinked with roadbuilding and colonization in Rondonia, Brazil. Streaming video and DVD 6137
Beijing besieged by waste : the observations from Wang Jiuliang. 2011, 1 streaming video file (80 min.). While China's rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that surrounds China's mega-metropolis, Beijing. Streaming video
Big river: a King corn companion. 2009, 1 streaming video file (77 min.). King Corn tells the story of two college friends from Boston, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, who move to Iowa to plant an acre of corn and follow their harvest into the food system. In Big, they investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has had on the people and places downstream. Streaming video
Biophilic design: the architecture of life. 2011, 1 streaming video file (60 min.). Biophilic design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. People need nature in a deep and fundamental fashion, but we have often designed our cities and suburbs in ways that both degrade the environment and alienate us from nature. The recent trend in green architecture has decreased the environmental impact of the built environment, but it has accomplished little in the way of reconnecting us to the natural world, the missing piece in the puzzle of sustainable development. The film features buildings that connect people and nature-- hospitals where patients heal faster, schools where children's test scores are higher, offices where workers are more productive, and communities where people know more of their neighbors and families thrive. Streaming video
Bird of Prey
Chris Packham explores what enables birds of prey to rule the aerial roost. Their ability to dominate their fellow birds in terms of strength, maneuverability and phenomenal speed is down to a combination of anatomical and physiological adaptations. Chris explains the internal workings of the bald eagle's ratchet talons and how sharp eyes and a gyroscopic head enable the goshawk to keep its sight firmly fixed on both its prey and its surroundings as it tears through the undergrowth. New research reveals how pop-up feathers on the peregrine falcon's back act like pits on a golf ball to reduce drag-allowing it to reach 220 mph
Streaming video
Black wave: the legacy of the Exxon Valdez. 2008, 1 streaming video file (99 min.). "In the early hours of March 24th, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil supertanker runs aground in Alaska. It discharges millions of gallons of crude oil. The incident becomes the biggest environmental catastrophe in North American history ... For twenty years, Riki Ott and the fisherman of the little town of Cordova, Alaska have waged the longest legal battle in U.S. history against the world's most powerful oil company -- ExxonMobil. They tell us all about the environmental, social, and economic consequences of the black wave that changed their lives forever."--Container. Streaming video
Blackfish
A discussion on the keeping of intelligent creatures in captivity. Employs the story of Tilikum, the notorious performing whale who, unlike orcas in the wild, has taken the lives of several people while in captivity.
DVD 8893
Blue Gold: world water wars. 2009, 1 streaming video file (90 min.). Will rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing, and industry increase the demands for fresh water beyond the finite supply? This program examines the role of high-level corporate and political players in the shrinking availability of what is already the most precious substance on Earth. Viewers follow numerous worldwide examples of the struggle for the basic right to water-from local protests at grade schools to the slow deliberation of UN conventions to violent revolutions in developing countries. Distributed by PBS Distribution. Streaming Video
Blue vinyl. 2002, 1 videodisc (97 min.). An investigation of vinyl siding and its effects on people and the environment. Filmmakers Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold set out in search of the truth about polyvinyl chloride (PVC), America's most popular plastic. From Long Island to Louisiana to Italy, they unearth the facts about PVC and its effects on human health and the environment. Back at the starter ranch, Helfand coaxes her terribly patient parents into replacing their vinyl siding on the condition that she can find a healthy, affordable alternative.
DVD 2188
Bluebird Man
Bluebird Man tells the story of 93-year-old Alfred Larson, a self-taught conservationist who has committed the last 35 years of his life to saving Idaho’s bluebirds. In the late 1970s, Al was inspired to join a growing movement of citizen scientists who over the past three decades have helped reverse bluebird declines by setting up networks of nestboxes specifically designed to provide nesting habitat for this emblematic bird.
Streaming video
Burning in the sun. 2011, 1 streaming video file (83 min.). "26-year-old Daniel Dembélé is equal parts West African and European, and looking to make his mark on the world. Seizing the moment at a crossroads in his life, Daniel decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels, the first of its kind in the sun drenched nation. Daniel's goal is to electrify the households of rural communities, 99% of which live without power. [The film] tells the story of Daniel's journey growing the budding idea into a viable company, and of the business' impact on Daniel's first customers in the tiny village of Banko. Addressing climate change, poverty, and self-sufficiency, the film demonstrates how a small-scale, local business model can improve jobs, appropriate products, and empower poor people everywhere." -- Container. DVD 9248 Streaming video
Captain Planet and the Planeteers. 2011, 4 videodiscs (600 min.). A quintet of teenagers work together to encourage environmentally responsible behavior and can summon a superhero to deal with ecological disasters. Join Captain Planet and the Planeteers as they protect the Earth! HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8841
Cemetery of Splendor
Soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a temporary clinic in a former school. The memory filled space becomes a revelatory world for housewife and volunteer Jenjira, as she watches over Itt, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. Magic, healing, romance and dreams are all part of Jen's tender path to a deeper awareness of herself and the world around her.
DVD 13362
Chasing ice. 2013, 1 videodisc (75 min) . Chronicles the efforts of nature photographer James Balog to document the receding of the Solheim glacier in Iceland, a consequence of climate change and global warming, in which strategically placed cameras would take one picture every hour for three years.
HOME USE DVD COLLECTION 3912
Chasing water. 2012, 1 stremaing video file (18 min.). "For 6 million years the Colorado River flowed to the sea. Today it runs dry some 90 miles shy of its historic terminus at the Sea of Cortez ... [This short documentary] is both revealing and alarming as it highlights the state of the river and the Southwest's drying future."--Distributor's website. Streaming video
Circle of Poison
When the U.S. government bans a chemical, deeming it harmful to the health of its citizens, companies are still allowed to produce it for export only. CIRCLE OF POISON exposes this disturbing federal policy that sends a message to the world that American lives are more valuable, taking a global look at communities impacted by the export of toxic pesticides and how they are fighting back.
Streaming video
Climate refugees the human face of climate change. 2010, 1 videodisc (86 min.). "[E]xplore[s] the global human impact of climate change and its serious destabilizing effect on international politics. The film turns the distant concept of global warming into a concrete human problem with enormous worldwide consequences...The film features a variety of leading scientists, relief workers, security consultants, and major political figures, including John Kerry and Newt Gingrich. Whether human-caused or a product of nature, the changing climate is already creating humanitarian disasters and will inevitably lead to worldwide political instability." -- Container.
DVD 9493
Countdown to zero. 2010, 1 videodisc (91 min.). Tracing the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. The film makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever as over 40 nations have the technical capacity to construct nuclear weapons. DVD 8304
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
Feature-length environmental documentary, following an intrepid filmmaker as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today and investigates why the world's leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.
DVD 14637
Damnation
This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. DamNation's majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.
DamNation opens big, on a birth, with the stirring words of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the dedication of Hoover Dam, and on a death, as the engineer at Elwha Dam powers down the turbine on its last day. DamNation stints neither the history nor the science of dams, and above all conveys experiences known so far to only a few, including the awe of watching a 30-pound salmon hurtling 20 feet into the air in a vain attempt to reach the spawning grounds that lie barricaded upriver. We witness the seismic power of a dam breaking apart and, once the river breaks free, the elation in watching wild salmon - after a century of denied access - swimming their way home.
Streaming video
Death by Design
Winner of 10 international awards, Death by Design is a guided tour into the invisible world of cells, told through a collage of metaphors and interviews with cellular biologists. State-of-the-art microcinematography is playfully intercut with parallel images from life at the human scale: a hundred lighted violins, imploding skyscrapers, Busby Berkeley musicals, Harold Lloyd antics and more.
Streaming video
Der traum vom baumhaus das Ökohausprojekt von Frei Otto in Berlin = Dreaming of a treehouse : Frei Otto's ecological housing project in Berlin. 2011, 1 streaming video file (66 min.). A film about the pioneering community-building project of the architect Frei Otto in Berlin, called the Ökohaus--an experimental, ecological, customized housing project in the city center. Includes interviews with Frei Otto, Christine Kanstinger-Otto, Hermann Kendel, Yona Friedman, Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philipe Vassal, and other architects, planners, and inhabitants. Streaming Video
design | e2 China - From Red to Green? 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). design | e2 (Season 1): Eø. Tad Fettig, the director and co-creator of the eø series, shares his perspectives on filming in China as this sleeping giant of industry, technology, and consumer demand awakens in the 21st century. Streaming video
design | e2 Deeper Shades of Green. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). design | e2 (Season 1): Eø. Meet maverick designer Cameron Sinclair, whose 'design like you give a damn' credo was an inspiration for the eø series. Streaming video
design | e2 Gray to Green. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). design | e2 (Season 1): Eø. A closer look at how much energy is used and how much pollution is created by construction. The impact on our environment is staggering. Streaming video
design | e2 Green for All. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). design | e2 (Season 1): Eø. Learn more about the inspirational architect Sergio Palleroni, who is introducing sustainability to poor and underdeveloped communities around the world. Palleroni is a professor at The University of Texas-Austin. Streaming video
design | e2 The Green Apple. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). design | e2 (Season 1): Eø. David Owen, a writer for The New Yorker, discussues the complex issues of sustainability as they relate to urban and suburban life. 'Green Manhattan,' an article that Owen wrote for The New Yorker about the city's inherent sustainability, was a major inspiration for the eø series. Streaming video
design | e2 The Green Machine. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). design | e2 (Season 1): Eø. Thirty years ago in Freiburg, Germany, the 'green movement' was born. Today, the city serves as a model of environmental consciousness for architects, planners, and even politicians. Its successes inspired Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who supported many environmental initiatives in his city. Streaming video
Dirt! the movie. 2010, 1 videodisc (80 min.). Featuring live action and animation, this movie examines the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to. DVD 1288
Streaming video
Dirty business "clean coal" and the battle for our energy future. 2011, 1 streaming video file (56 min.). Half our electricity still comes from coal. Dirty business reveals the true social and environmental costs of coal power and tells the stories of innovators who are pointing the way to an alternative energy future. Guided by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell, the film examines what it means to remain dependent on a 19th century technology that is the largest single source of greenhouse gases. Can coal really be made clean? Can renewables be produced on a scale large enough to replace coal? The film seeks answers in a series of stories shot in China, Saskatchewan, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada and New York. Streaming video
E2: the economies of being environmentally conscious. 2006, 1 videodisc (ca. 180 [i.e. 160] min.). Examines the economies of being environmentally conscious in green building design. The green apple uses New York City, particularly One Bryant Park and the Solaire, to demonstrates how the ubiquitous skyscraper can be a model of environmental responsibility. The second episode features architect and activist Sergio Palleroni as he works to provide design solutions to regions suffering from social and humanitarian crises. Shows projects in East Austin, Tex. and with the Yaqui Indians in Mexico where architecture students are helping residents build low-cost, environmentally-friendly homes using local materials. The green machine follows Mayor Richard M. Daley as he strives to make Chicago "the greenest city in America" with numerous LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified buildings, a solar-powered public transportation system, and many green roofs, including one on Chicago's City Hall. The fourth episode takes the notion of the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) to grand proportions by turning Boston's "Big Dig" steel and concrete waste into spectacular residential design. China : from red to green? depicts a rapidly urbanizing country at its tipping point and finds a sustainable solution in Steven Holl's Beijing project, which will have the largest geothermal heating/cooling and greywater recycling system in the world upon completion. Deeper shades of green presents three visionaries who are changing the face of architecture and environmentalism and features some of their projects. Focuses on Ken Yeang and his "bio-climatic" National Library of Singapore, Werner Sobek and R128, his energy-efficient, steel and glass box house, and William McDonough and his model sustainable village of Huangbaiyu, China. DVD 5508
Earth, the operators' manual Energy quest USA. 2012, 1 videodisc (ca. 57 min.). "Instead of waiting for Washington these folks are rolling up their sleeves and meeting the challenges head on. In the process, they're becoming energy efficient, saving a buck, protecting the environment, and securing the future for our kids and our country. This third program in the Earth: The operators' manual series is not about a red or blue America, but about the power of people who want to move beyond political labels, debates and paralysis to build a more productive, prosperous and sustainable future."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10561
Earth, the operators' manual Powering the planet. 2012, 1 videodisc (57 min.). "Using compelling stories that showcase the many ways in which great nations and smaller communities are finding sustainable solutions that provide for people and protect the Earth, Power the Planet asks an urgent question: Is America making the right decisions for its own energy future? This second program in the Earth: the operators' manual series is an eye-opening look at some of the world's most important energy decisions, and a provocative assessment of what it takes to build a sustainable energy infrastructure. The planet offers lots of choices: what we do with them is up to us."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10560
Earth, the operators' manual. 2011, 1 videodisc (54 min.). "Is the planet due for an oil change? Why are fossil fuels unsustainable? Can renewable energy power the planet? These and many other questions are answered in "Earth: The Operator's Manual." This accurate, understandable and upbeat report on the interconnected stories of humans, fossil fuels, earth's climate history and our future energy options will leave you amazed at the beauty and bounty of the planet, inspired by human ingenuity, and optimistic about the future" -- Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10559
Edward Burtynsky: manufactured landscapes . 2007, 1 videodisc (90 min.). Follows photographer Edward Burtynsky as he travels through China photographing the effects of that country's massive industrial revolution. DVD 3406
E-Waste Tragedy
Illegal electronics recycling is a toxic business on a global scale. Why do three quarters of Europe's electronic waste disappear from the official recycling system? In the suburbs of Accra, Ghana, children play at dismantling scrapped electronic equipment, surrounded by toxic fumes in a sadly-famous, uncontrolled rubbish dump. The film takes this site as its point of departure, and is driven forward by Ghanaian journalist Mike Anane, who is an expert on the environment. He wants to know why his country has become the trash can of the developed countries. This lucid and efficient investigation by Cosima Dannoritzer (The Light Bulb Conspiracy) into several European countries, Asia and the U.S., reveals the apparatus of large-scale trafficking, as well as a complex chain of responsibility and collusion.
Streaming video
Fed Up
Narrated by Katie Couric, the film blows the lid off everything that was known about food and exercise, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public. Exposing the hidden truths contributing to one of the largest health epidemics in history, it follows a group of families battling to lead healthier lives and reveals why the conventional wisdom of 'exercise and eat right' is not ringing true for millions of people.
DVD 6424
Field Biologist
Field Biologist is the story of 22-year-old Tyler Christensen, a remarkably talented but somewhat rudderless high school graduate from New Jersey still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Tyler's great love is being outside, chasing birds and studying wildlife. Brushing aside his lack of a college degree or scientific credential, he decides to drop everything and travel to Costa Rica to start doing his own conservation-oriented research on birds in the tropics. His adventure takes him from the cloud forests of Monteverde to the mangrove swamps of the Nicoya Peninsula, culminating in a plan to help save the highly endangered mangrove hummingbird.
Streaming video
Flow for love of water. 2008, 1 videodisc (84 min.). A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply is connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics. Features interviews with scientists and activists. Includes commentary, expanded interviews, and more. DVD 5045
Food Chains
There is more interest in food these days than ever, yet there is very little interest in the hands that pick it. Farmworkers, the foundation of our fresh food industry, are routinely abused and robbed of wages. In extreme cases they can be beaten, sexually harassed or even enslaved – all within the borders of the United States.
Food Chains reveals the human cost in our food supply and the complicity of large buyers of produce like fast food and supermarkets.
DVD 11775 and Streaming video
Food Choices
This film takes a broader look and explores the impact that our food choices have not only on our own health, but also on the health of our planet as well as on the lives of other living species on earth and shows how everything is intrinsically interconnected. This film features interviews with renowned doctors, nutritionists, environmental experts, holistic health practitioners, athletes, musicians, celebrities, authors, bloggers as well as people that shared their amazing stories.
DVD 13558
Food, Inc. 2009, 1 videodisc (94 min.). Lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profits ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Reveals surprising - and often shocking truths - about what we eat, how it's produced and who we have become as a nation.
HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6527
Forks over knives. 2011, 1 videodisc (96 min.). This documentary "examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9100
Freightened – The Real Price of Shopping
This program is a thrilling investigation carried out around the globe. It takes us behind the scenes of the sea shipping business, revealing the mechanics and perils of a powerful, secret and highly unregulated industry that holds the key to our global economy, our environment and the very model of our civilization. 90% of everything we consume comes from overseas, which makes sea shipping the true backbone of today’s globalised economy. This documentary exposes the invincible business model of the sea freight apparatus, an obscure industry that acts beyond the public’s radar and has become an ideal means of conveyance for arms traders and drug traffickers. The film also investigates how 60,000 ships pollute the world’s oceans and contribute massively to climate change. What is the real price of shipping? Who are the key players of this global industry? And overall, what is its impact on the environment and on our lives?
Streaming video
Gambling on Extinction
Gambling on Extinction is a powerful documentary about greed and a merciless battle over a limited resource: wild elephants and rhinos. There is a war against nature raging in the savannahs and jungles of Africa and Asia. The illegal trade in wildlife is estimated to generate $20 billion per year. Wildlife crime is a highly organized business, luring unscrupulous investors and warlords. We are facing the greatest mass extinction since the era of the dinosaurs and as numbers go down, the prices go up, making it a perverse futures market in extinction.
Streaming video
Garbage warrior. 2008, 1 videodisc (87 min.). Using empty beer cans, old tires, plastic bottles and other garbage, iconoclastic architect Michael Reynolds, based in New Mexico, has been building ecologically sustainable structures for 35 years. Calling his structures "earthships," Reynolds has had conflicts with government officials over inflexible zoning and housing laws, but his architectural ideas were put to use in the Andaman Islands following the 2005 tsunami. DVD 5120
Gasland II. 1 videodisc (125 min.). In this explosive follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film Gasland, filmmaker Josh Fox uses his trademark dark humor to take a deeper, broader look at the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil, now occurring on a global level (in 32 countries worldwide). HOM USE COLLECTION DVD 11113
GasLand: can you light your water on fire? 2010, 1 videodisc (106 min.). In 2009, filmmaker Josh Fox learned his land was on top of the Marcellus Shale, a giant reservoir of natural gas, and that he would be paid to lease his land for natural gas extraction. Fox documented his cross-country trek to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracking is actually safe. What he unearthed was a shocking discovery about a practice that is understudied and inadequately regulated, and he raced to find answers about fracking before it was too late. DVD 7968
Go further. 2005, 1 videodisc (78 min.). Join actor/activist Woody Harrelson and friends as they take a hemp-fuelled bus on an eco-consciousness raising 1300-mile incursion down the beautiful Pacific Coast from Seattle to Santa Barbara. Explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The goal is to show people they encounter that there are viable alternatives to our habitual, environmentally-destructive behaviors. DVD 10030
Good Things Await
Niels is 79 years old and one of the last idealistic farmers in the agricultural country of Denmark. He makes some of the world’s finest products, praised by the consumers, prized by the world’s best restaurant, NOMA in Copenhagen, and nursed in harmony with the universe. But Niels’ ways of farming in accordance with the planets and the primal instincts of the animals are not too popular with the authorities. They are threatening to withdraw his license to keep cattle, the buildings are deteriorating, and with no successor to take over, Niels risks seeing his life fall apart.
Streaming video
Gringo Trails
A timely documentary that raises urgent questions about how we travel and the unintended cultural and environmental consequences of tourism around the globe. Gringo Trails follows well-worn travelers' routes through Bolivia, Thailand, Mali, and Bhutan. The film reveals the complex relationships between colliding cultures, such as the host countries' need for financial security and the tourists who provide it in their quest for authentic experiences. Through the stories of both travelers and locals, the film explores the dramatic impact of travel and tourism around the world over the past 30 years, highlighting the cases of the Amazon Tuichi River and Uyuni (Bolivia), Ko Phangan (Thailand), Timbuktu (Mali) and Bhutan.
Streaming video
H2OMX
Can a mega-city mobilize its 22 million citizens to become water sustainable?
Mexico City was built not near water but in the middle of a lake. To supply it with fresh water is such a task that it makes it compulsory to bring it from other states. In addition once sewage water leaves the city it ends up in agriculture.
This film is an environmental case study of the Valley of Mexico as it struggles to save itself while its population grows.
Streaming video
Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution
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.
Streaming video
Homo Sapiens
Presented entirely without commentary or narration, "Homo sapiens" consists of images of abandoned buildings and structures in the process of being reclaimed by nature, as well as desolate natural locales.
DVD 13678
How to boil a frog make friends/make fun/make trouble. 2010, 1 videodisc (87 min.). An eco-comedy (documentary feature film) that mixes rapid-fire humor with hard-hitting facts to show the consequences of overshoot: too many people using up too little planet, much too fast. Gives us an overview of our situation and 5 surprising ways that regular people like you and me can save civilization, while making our own lives better now. DVD 9186
How to Change the World
In 1971, a group of friends sailed into a nuclear test zone in a protest that would capture the public's imagination. That handful of individuals would go on to become the international environmental organization Greenpeace. Comprised of rare archival footage and interviews with former Greenpeace members, How to change the world recounts Greenpeace's early days under the pioneering helm of its founder Bob Hunter.
DVD 13648 and Streaming video
How to Let Go of the World
In his new film, Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox (GASLAND) continues in his deeply personal style, investigating climate change — the greatest threat our world has ever known. Traveling to 12 countries on 6 continents, the film acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences and asks, what is it that climate change can't destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away?
Streaming video
How to save the world one man, one cow, one planet. 2007, 1 videodisc (104 min.). "Exposes globalization and its mantra of infinite growth in a finite world for what it really is: an environmental and human disaster. But across India, farmers are fighting back. By reviving an arcane form of agriculture, they are saving their poisoned lands and exposing the biocolonialism of multinational corporations" -- Container. DVD 9041
Human Flow
Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact, following a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey.
Streaming video