Free documentary Films Archive

http://www.permaculture-media-download.com/2011/08/free-documentary-films-archive.html

Documentary Films Archive

• Life After People (History Channel) - Complete Season One - What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared? This isn t the story of how we might vanish it is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind. Building off the success of the HISTORY two-hour special Life After People, this series continues the exploration of a world wiped clean of humanity, in even more vivid detail.

• Keyline Farming in 1955 - short documentary - This is perhaps one of the oldest known films on the Keyline concept filmed on PA Yeomans' former farm 'Nevallan' circa 1955.

• Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series - 11 Documentary Films Online - With an unprecedented production budget of $25 million, and from the makers of Blue Planet: Seas of Life, comes the epic story of life on Earth. Five years in production, over 2,000 days in the field, using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations, shot entirely in high definition, this is the ultimate portrait of our planet. A stunning television experience that captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, this blockbuster series takes you on an unforgettable journey through the daily struggle for survival in Earth's most extreme habitats.

• Indigenous Community Resilience (short documentary films) - Resilience shows the stories of 5 indigenous communities who are increasing their resilience to climate change and natural resource scarcity by strengthening their traditional knowledge, customary law and agricultural systems

• Rwanda - Forests of Hope - Permaculture observation and action in Rwanda - John Liu, who was involved in the massive Chinese Loess Plateau restoration project, now turns his eyes towards Rwanda in this inspiring example of permaculture observation and action.

• Steal This Film I (2006) + Steal This Film II (2007) + Trial Edition (2009) - Documentary Films and Resources - Steal This Film is a film series documenting the movement against intellectual property produced by The League of Noble Peers and released via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol. Two parts, and one special The Pirate Bay trial edition of the first part, have been released so far, and The League of Noble Peers is working on "Steal this Film - The Movie" and a new project entitled "The Oil of the 21st Century"

• Transition Town Totnes: what the past can teach us about the future: a new film - A documentary asking whether it could be said that our lives were, or weren't, more resilient in the recent past. A film created by Susana Martinez, Rob Hopkins and Emilio Mula.

• Channel 4: Grand Designs: Ben Law - Build an Eco-Home from the woods - In this monumental documentary, the famous British woodsman Ben Law is covered as he plans and executes the development of the wooden house of his (and monay others') dreams. Build entirely of wood that he himself has husbanded, on land that he has cared for, this represents the culmination of a lifetimes work and acheivement in modern environmentalism.

• Permaculture in Cambodia - Full-length version of documentary focusing on a Permaculture Design Course conducted by Rico Zook in Cambodia during December 2008.

• Gasland (2010) - "The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire.

• Agroforestry, Forest Farming - Documentary Film - Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.

• Systems of Change: Edible Forest Gardening - Documentary of edible forest garden installation at the Evergreen State College by filmmaker Phred Swain-Sugarman. Edible forest gardens are perennial polycultures of food-bearing and other useful species. Includes interviews with volunteers and project coordinator.

• Permaculture Documentary Costa Rica

• "Permaculture Trio"- Forest Gardening, Edible Landscapes & Urban Permaculture (mini-documentaries)

• Manna - Psilocybin Mushroom Documentary Film

• Saving the Bumblebee - Short Documentary Film - This short film is about the plight of the humble bumblebee which has declined dramatically in numbers and range during the 20th Century, to the extent that half of the 25 British species are now rare and 2 are extinct.

• The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream - Global oil peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of the future? This is a short version of "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream", a documentary about the end of the age of cheap oil. The film is hosted by Canadian broadcaster Barrie Zwicker and features discussions with James Howard Kunstler, Peter Calthorpe, Michael Klare, Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, Michael Ruppert, Julian Darley, Colin Campbell, Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Ali Samsam Bakhtiari and Steve Andrews.

• Dirt! The Movie (2009) - takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation. The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, "dirt is very much alive." Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted.

• Sepp Holzer - The Agro Rebel: Permaculture in Salzburg Alps (Der Agrar-Rebel) - Sepp Holzer, the Austrian farmer and forester practices "permaculture" a different kind of farming on his mountain property. With this certain form of organic-agriculture, he is very convincing and successfully. Contrary to all conventional rules and despite annual average temperatures of 4.5°C and an altitude of between 900m-1400m, he cultivates cherries, apples, mushrooms, kiwis, lemons, pumpkins, potatoes and zucchinis. This year he also started big permaculture-projects in Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela.

• Permaculture - A Quiet Revolution - This timely documentary offers practical steps on how to 'permaculturize' our lives. It invites viewers into a permaculture community that spans the globe. Most importantly, it gives the critical inspiration needed to turn our backs on that which is failing us, and to create a sustainable future of our own making.

• HEAVEN ON EARTH - Permaculture with Rico Zook - Heaven On Earth is a video travelogue documenting the work of permaculturist Rico Zook. Join us as we travel with Rico to the Northern most part of India in the shade of the towering Himalayas, to glimpse the future through Rico's eyes and learn what permaculture is, and what it has to offer both humanity and the planet. Is it possible we might find heaven on earth here, and now? Watch and see.

• A River Runs Through Us (2011) - A personal and hopeful introduction to one of the biggest threats facing our world's lifelines, as told by the people at the forefront of the global movement. Filmed at Rivers for Life 3 -- a 2010 gathering of 350 river activists from 50 countries, held in rural Mexico -- this documentary touches on issues such as how climate change will affect rivers and dams; what happens to communities displaced by or living downstream of large dams; and what kinds of solutions exist that both preserve our life-giving waterways while meeting our needs for energy and water.

• Shock Doctrine: The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism (2009) - Naomi Klein - Documentary Film - Offering illuminating insight into the investigative journalism behind Naomi Klein's bestselling book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, this riveting hour-long lecture and interview explains the ideas and research behind the book that exposed the popular myth of the free market economy’s peaceful global victory. From Chile in 1973 to today, this is the chilling tale of shock doctors, those powerful few making a killing around the world by cashing in on chaos and exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally implement their policies.

• D.I.Y. Or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist - D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist is a low-budget documentary film released by Music Video Distributors in 2002. The film is a "celebration of the underdog" and deals with why artists do what they do, regardless of the lack of a continuous paycheck. 

• Fuel (2010) - Eleven years in the making, FUEL is the in-depth personal journey of filmmaker and eco-evangelist Josh Tickell, who takes us on a hip, fast-paced road trip into America’s dependence on foreign oil. Animated by powerful graphics, FUEL looks into our future offering hope via a wide-range of renewable energy and bio-fuels. Winner of the Sundance Audience Award.

• End:Civ Resist Or Die (2010) - examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

• Perma Kultcha - Permaculture and Organic Farming in South Africa - This 30-minute documentary focuses on Permaculture and Organic Farming in South Africa and what it can do to transform society at a grass roots level, to create sustainable lives for individuals, communities and South Africa as a whole.

• Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: Farming with Nature - A Case Study of Successful Temperate Permaculture - He has also done original work in the use of Hugelkultur and natural branch development (not pruning) to allow fruit trees to survive high altitudes and harsh winters. He is currently conducting permaculture ("Holzer Permaculture") seminars both at his der krameterhof farm and worldwide, while continuing to work on his alpine farm.

• Practical Permaculture in Britain documentary by Malcolm Baldwin

• Arne Naess and Deep Ecology Movement - The Call of the Mountain (1997) - Portrait of the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess and the Deep Ecology Movement. Made in 1997 by Rerun Productions, The Netherlands. Shot on location in Naess's hut Tvergastein on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau, and in Berkeley, USA. With Bill Devall, Vandana Shiva, George Sessions, Helena Norberg-Hodge, and Harold Glasser.

• The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil - “The Power of Community” is creating excitement in localization groups, and with good reason. In this film, individual Cubans tell us how they responded to an artificially imposed “Peak Oil” in the 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet Union caused the loss of most food and oil imports. Their stories serve as a valuable model for a world facing Peak Oil on a global scale. Cuba’s transition to a low-energy society is hopeful and instructive.

• BBC Panorama "BP: In Deep Water" (2010) + Transcript - A report examining the consequences of the explosion in April on BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which is being called `America's greatest environmental disaster. Two months after an explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people, Panorama's Hilary Andersson tells the story of America's 'greatest environmental disaster.'

• Food, Inc. (2008) - filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

• VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture - documentary explores the philosophy behind Voluntary Simplicity, what potential or significance it has as a quietly emerging social movement and what its limitations might be. Presented by Samuel Alexander, a part-time lecturer and doctoral student at the University of Melbourne Law School, and the founder of the Life Poet’s Simplicity Collective

• No Impact Man (2008) - As the news stories go: "Colin Beavan is a liberal schlub who got tired of listening to himself complain about the world without ever actually doing anything about it" Thus, in November, 2006, Beavan launched a year-long project in which he, his wife, his two-year-old daughter and his four-year-old dog went off the grid and attempted to live in the middle of New York City with as little environmental impact as possible.

• Flow: For Love of Water - Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?” Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

• Aerosol Crimes (aka Chemtrails) - Over the years aerosol/chemtrail research has provided some leads but even more questions as to who and why the spraying occurs. It is clear jets are deliberately spraying the sky’s and it will not stop until enough people are aware and willing to stand up for the operations exposure and termination.

• HOME (documentary film) - Former actor Yann Arthus-Bertrand directed this visually astonishing portrait of the Earth as seen from mesmerizing aerial views. Home is not the first documentary to survey our planet from the air, but Arthus-Bertrand brilliantly and dreamily captures the miraculous linkage within delicate eco-systems. For viewers whose eyes glaze over at descriptions of the way Earth recycles energy and matter, Home underscores the beautiful and awesome reality of that complex process.

• Satoyama: Japan's Secret Watergarden (BBC Natural World) - Over a thousand years, towns and villages have developed a unique system to make springs and water part of their homes. From inside their houses, the stream pours into Japan’s largest fresh water lake, near the ancient capital of Kyoto. This is a habitat so precious, the Japanese have a special word for it, satoyama, villages where mountains give way to plains. They are exceptional environments essential to both the people who maintain them and to the wildlife that now share them.

• Collapse (documentary film) + Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World (ebook)

• Eco-Centric - short documentary film about permaculture co-originator David Holmgren - a story by reporter Tim Lee from the 2004 ABC program 'Landline' about permaculture co-originator David Holmgren, whose "pivotal role in developing permaculture has scarcely been recognised"

• Bill Mollison - Global Gardener - II - "Dry lands"

• The Sustainable City documentary - Sustainable architecture, or green architecture, aims to minimize the negative impact of buildings on the environment by enhancing efficiency and moderating the use of materials, energy, and space.

• Masanobu Fukuoka - Making Seedballs

• Eampe Punie Pajeami - The Chaco Forest and Its People - documents the work of the Amotocodie Initiative and Ayoreo leaders to support – from a distance – groups of uncontacted Ayoreo in the Chaco Forest and to protect their rights to life and self-determination.

• Dennis Weavers - Earthship

• GARBAGE WARRIOR (2008) - Earthship Biotecture by Michael Reynolds - What do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you're renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing. For 30 years New Mexico-based Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of "Earthship Biotecture" by building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities where design and function converge in eco-harmony.

• Bill Mollison - Global Gardener - I - "In the tropics" - BILL MOLLISON is a practical visionary. For nearly two decades he has traveled the globe spreading the word about permaculture, the method of sustainable agriculture that he devised. Permaculture weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, water management and human needs into intricately connected productive communities. Mollison has proved that even in the most difficult conditions permaculture empowers people to turn wastelands into food forests.

• Mike Adams - Monopoly Medicine - How Big Pharma takes your money and makes you sick. Mike Adams interviewed by G. Edward Griffin Mike Adams, known as the Health Ranger to his fans, is the author of numerous books on natural health and editor of the popular internet site called News Target. Although self-taught, his knowledge of natural medicine is nothing short of phenomenal, as you will see from this interview. Be prepared for an enlightenment that could change your life.

• Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes a Crime - This documentary concerns Harry M. Hoxsey, the former coal miner whose family’s herbal recipe has brought about claims of a cancer cure. Starting in 1924 with his first clinic, he expanded to 17 states by the mid 1950s, along the way constantly battling organized medicine that labeled him a charlatan.

• Swedish documentary on WikiLeaks: "WikiRebels" - In less than a year Wikileaks has grown from a rather obscure website to a global political player, shaping world history and events, by revealing secret documents about warcrimes, corporate corruption and shady political backdoor dealings. Over several months a crew from Swedish Television has been following the secretive media network and its work behind the scenes. The result is a one hour feature documentary that tells the story behind the story.

• First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological Architecture (2010) - FIRST EARTH is a documentary about the movement towards a massive paradigm shift for shelter -- building healthy houses in the old ways, out of the very earth itself, and living together like in the old days, by recreating villages. It is a sprawling film, shot on location from the West Coast to West Africa. An audiovisual manifesto filmed over the course of 4 years and 4 continents, FIRST EARTH makes the case that earthen homes are the healthiest housing in the world; and that since it still takes a village to raise a healthy child, it is incumbent upon us to transform our suburban sprawl into eco-villages, a new North American dream.

• Dying to Have Known - The Evidence Behind Natural Healing (2008) - In DYING TO HAVE KNOWN, filmmaker Steve Kroschel goes on a 52-day journey to find evidence supporting the effectiveness of the Gerson Therapy -- a long-suppressed natural cancer cure. His travels take him from Alaska to Mexico with stops in San Diego, New York, Japan, Holland and Spain. In the end, he presents the testimonies of patients, scientists, surgeons and nutritionists who testify to the therapy s efficacy in curing cancer and other degenerative diseases, and presents the hard scientific proof to back up their claims.

• Life running out of control - Genetically Modified Organisms - In the mid 1980s, scientists unlocked the genetic keys to manipulating our world. Suddenly everything seemed possible! There would be no more hunger or malnutrition; diseases would be vanquished and poverty wiped out. But twenty years on the situation looks very different. From the loss of biodiversity to health scares about GM food, the effects of genetic technology are prompting more and more debate. Our documentary this week is an intelligent look at both sides of the issue. Made for ARTE.

• An Inconvenient Truth (2006) - Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don’t act now.

• Backyard permaculture - documentary online - Gardening Australia - ABC’s Gardening Australia weekly show is enormously popular and has been focussing on permaculture and organic gardening for many years. One of the best advocates of permaculture in popular media today.

• American Experience: Earth Days (2009) - It is now all the rage in the Age of Al Gore and Obama, but can you remember when everyone in America was not Going Green ? Visually stunning, vastly entertaining and awe-inspiring, Earth Days looks back to the dawn and development of the modern environmental movement from its post-war rustlings in the 1950s and the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson s incendiary bestseller Silent Spring, to the first wildly successful 1970 Earth Day celebration and the subsequent firestorm of political action. Earth Days secret weapon is a one-two punch of personal testimony and rare archival media.

• Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers & Tides - Wildly praised by the nation's top critics, the smash theatrical hit RIVERS AND TIDES is a mesmerizing, poetic and curiously contemplative portrait of revered Scottish sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, whose long-winding rock walls, icicle assemblages and other intricate, druidic masterpieces are made entirely of materials found in the wild.

• The World According to Monsanto - The World According to Monsanto tells the little-known yet shocking story of this agribusiness giant--the world's leading producer of GMOs (genetically modified organisms)--and how its new "green" face is no less malign than its PCB- and Agent Orange-soaked past.

• Killing Fields - the Battle to Feed Factory Farms (short documentary) - This ground breaking short film investigates the impacts of growing soy in South America to feed factory farms in Europe.

• Natural World – A Farm for the Future - With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family's wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year's high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is.

• Late Night Sunrise - The story of the resistance in Cabanas, El Salvador, to the El Dorado mine, owned by Canadian mining company Pacific Rim. A film by Michael Watts & David McNulty.

• Truth, Trials and Tar Sands: The Beaver Lake Cree Nation Battle Big Oil to Save the Boreal - Chief Al Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation and Jack Woodward, pre-eminent authority on Aboriginal law in Canada, speak to a full house on Salt Spring Island about the need to tackle the tar sands if we are going to really be effective in the fight against climate change.

• Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) - Blue Gold expresses the Tsilhqot'in peoples' unanimous rejection of Taseko Mines Ltd.'s proposal to drain Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in order to stockpile mining waste.

• The Merchants of Cool (2001) - They are the merchants of cool: creators and sellers of popular culture who have made teenagers the hottest consumer demographic in America. But are they simply reflecting teen desires or have they begun to manufacture those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market? And have they gone too far in their attempts to reach the hearts--and wallets--of America's youth?

• American Holocaust: When It’s All Over I’ll Still Be Indian - The powerful and hard-hitting documentary, American Holocaust, is quite possibly the only film that reveals the link between the Nazi holocaust, which claimed at least 6 million Jews, and the American Holocaust which claimed, according to conservative estimates, 19 million Indigenous People.

• Outdoor Kindergarten - Back to Nature (2009) - Outdoor nurseries are trying to counteract concerns that childhood has become overprotected and believe external education makes children more creative and independent. We´re competing with computer games, says Heidi, Its important to give children the desire to be outdoors.

• In Transition: from oil dependence to local resilience - ‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities.

• In Transition 1.0 with French subtitles

• Battle for the Trees (1993) - It is a complex battle being fought on many fronts--in corporate board rooms, in legislatures, on the streets, and in the woods. The weapons range from million-dollar public relations campaigns to quiet acts of civil disobedience. At stake are the last stands of old-growth coastal forest of British Columbia, which are being clearcut at an increased rate every year. Soon they will be gone forever.

• How To Terraform the Desert: Dryland Permaculture Strategies with Bill Mollison - In this video series the father of modern Permaculture takes us along on some visits to projects where desolate, arid, environments are being revitalized and brought to life through passive water collection and soil restoration.

• Dirty Oil (2009) - Dirty Oil dramatically explores the battle between industry, government, local communities and environmentalists. From the heart of the oils sands in Northern Alberta, Dirty Oil follows the pipelines to the U.S. Midwest refineries, to witness how refineries, much like its Canadian counterparts, try to increase toxic dumping into the Great Lakes. These disturbing stories profoundly illustrate the price dirty oil is taking on both sides of the border.

• Amazonia for Sale - Awajun People and their struggle - Approximately 35 minutes in length, Amazonia for Sale tells the story of the Awajun Peoples, who, like so many other Indigenous People around the world, are struggling to preserve their land, protect their way of life, and defend their dignity and rights in the Peruvian Amazon.

• Natural Building and a New Sense of the Earth - This DVD takes you to visit: Linda Smiley and Ianto Evans who pioneered the use of building with earth, straw and sand called cob in the U.S. and who now run the North American School of Natural Building in Coquille, Oregon where they and their students have used natural building methods to create a little village. Coenraad and Courtney Rogmans who took a piece of undeveloped land, built straw bale and cob buildings complete with solar electricity and a water catchment system, and who teach natural building workshops.

• Moneyless in Moab (2006) - Interweaving philosophical conversations with suelo in his cave and treehouse with colorful footage of his daily activities in town and in nature, MONEYLESS IN MOAB offers an intimate look at a person who embodies a radical alternative to our excessively consumeristic american way of life. The film opens our eyes to the fact that it is indeed possible to live happily without money, and to do so with joy, grace, and dignity, even in a world gone mad with attachment.

• Ready, steady, skip (2008) - Ready Steady Skip is a short film made by a community of friends in response to our continual amazement at the things we find in skips; to share what we experience of the staggering amounts of food waste seen by retailers as nothing more than a factor in the cost of doing business.

• Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East (Permaculture) - This half hour video documents the ongoing work of Permaculture Gurus, Geoff and Nadia Lawton, in the Dead Sea Valley. It begins with the famous original 'Greening the Desert' five minute video clip, and then continues into Part II, a 2009 update to the 2001 original.