Why do we watch movies? In a nutshell, we watch to feel good, which helps us escape reality for the time being. However, recent technological advancements in computer-generated graphic animation and the quality of research-based content writing on various real-life issues open up a new dimension of filmmaking beyond our comprehension. This implies that we can visualize stuff and learn from great content. Movies are among the best and most powerful tools to educate, spread awareness and convince people about climate change and other critical issues.
Ongoing research on climate change and reaching out to commoners with the messages are two sides of a coin. Therefore, blending the latest computer-generated visuals and research-oriented scientific facts can create magic in understanding the climate change process and concurrent future changes. Many such movies (including documentaries) have been made available to watch. The only concern is the language; as most of them are in English, it may be tricky to reach out to global citizens. However, these can be understandable to students with basic English understanding. So here are my top 10 movie picks on climate change:
1. Princess Mononoke (1997)
Being a fan of fantasy genre movies, this is my top recommendation. This Japanese animation movie is based on a simple plot focusing on the consequences of harming mother nature. This is one of the very earliest movies that talks about climate change. The story revolves around Ashikata, who is on a journey to find a cure for a demonic curse that accounts for his superhuman strength, suffering, and pain. While he travels, he encounters a conflict between the Forest gods and a mining colony fighting for natural resources. The word "Mononoke" means a supernatural being who possesses humans and can cause them diseases, pain, and suffering. This movie has well-blended cinematic elements and sends a social message on climate change, which is still relevant despite being released 25 years back. This is an excellent movie to start with.
2. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
One of the very first movies depicting the topic of Global Warming and its consequences leading to a global ice age is this movie, written and directed by Roland Emmerich. However, there is a lot to be verified in terms of scientific facts and accuracy, stressing the timeline where all ocean-atmospheric changes are shown in the movie, especially the ice-age part, which seems a tad exaggeration. However, the movie manages to convey the message of the ongoing climate crisis.
3. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
This critically acclaimed 2006 documentary is a must-watch. This movie focuses on the sciences behind the ongoing global warming and climate crisis; through the socio-political involvement of former US Vice-President Al Gore, an environmentalist himself. For Your Information, Al Gore is the founder and chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit devoted to solving the climate crisis. This movie stresses that global warming is real and how it could become catastrophic in the upcoming years. This movie is blended with humour and some critical facts to think about. It is one of the movies for one to start with. In Addition to this, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017), a sequel to this one, is worth watching. It continues with Al Gore's fight against the climate crisis, motivating world leaders to invest in climate change, which led to the 2016 Paris Agreement.
4. Climate Refugees (2010)
An eye-opener documentary that gives you a broad view of climate change's impact on our society by losing homes due to rising sea levels, increased cyclone activities, rising temperatures, coastal storm surges, and floods. The documentary conveys that we eventually end up as refugees, mass migrants looking for new habitats due to climate change. A refugee crisis is already going on due to other social reasons, i.e. mass migration into Europe from African countries, and climate change may fuel this up even at a more rapid pace.
5. Don't Look Up (2021)
One of my personal favourites. A hard-hitting satirical representation of the current approach of governments and media agencies towards climate change. This Netflix movie is about a professor played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his PhD student (Jennifer Lawrence). They discovered a fast-moving comet approaching Earth and likely to destroy humanity from Earth. The sarcastic approach taken by the filmmakers makes this movie fun. The director showcases the involvement of media, politicians, capitalists, and the role of social networks in this severe matter; therefore, they have smartly named the movie "Don't Look Up", implying the destruction is likely to come through the sky. This movie sends a clear message to the audience that our governments are not doing enough to tackle climate change in terms of funding and not being critical of the opinions of scientific agencies.
6. Before the flood (2016)
Leonardo DiCaprio has collaborated with National Geographic Channel to make this documentary. This one focuses on educating people about climate change and taking the necessary measures to stop climate change. He is quoting, "The truth is, the more I've learned about this issue and everything that contributes to the problem, the more I realize how much I don't know". In Addition, one can also check out Ice on Fire (2019), produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio in collaboration with HBO. This one talks abundantly about Greenhouse gases (GHG), which include Carbon dioxide and methane, in particular, and emphasizes stopping GHG emissions into the atmosphere.
7. 2040 (2019)
The movie entitled "2040" gives a futuristic view of Earth's climate and its consequences for our future generation, but positively, this documentary is about the filmmaker Damon Gameau concerning the future for his four years old daughter in a world of changing climate. The protagonist asks what can be done to tackle climate change with the present technology available to humanity so that there will be a future for his daughter's generation and beyond. This documentary mainly talks about the solutions rather than the problems we are facing right now, talking about the Net-Zero carbon emission goal and the usage of renewable energy. This movie gives a positive vibe and hopes that we can still tackle the current climate crisis and create a sustainable earth for future generations.
8. Our Planet (2019)
This list will never be complete without listening to Sir David Attenborough's narrative. Hence, this Netflix documentary brings a broader perspective on Earth's climate system through eight long episodes explaining the components of the climate systems, their dynamics, and triggered climate crises through global warming, sea level rise, coastal changes, ocean acidification, deforestation, and so on. Sir David Attenborough's euphoric voice and the stunning visuals of some of the most exotic locations around the world and showcasing many wild animals and birds in their natural habitats make you glued to your seat. Also, an 80 minutes duration shorter version of this documentary can be found on Netflix as "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet", where he shares his life experiences and his vision for the future in this changing climate.
9. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)
Currently streaming on Netflix, this 2014 documentary is a bold attempt to address the environmental damages caused by the animal agriculture industry. This fact-based documentary claims that the livestock industry is one of the primary sources that no one talks about, triggering environmental issues such as global warming, water contamination, deforestation, and ocean dead zones. Similarly, Netflix's Seaspiracy (2021), another documentary, discusses various environmental issues caused by human activities, affecting oceans via significant plastic pollution, increasing ghost nets, and overfishing. This documentary argues that commercial fisheries are causing harm to the marine ecosystem. So, these two documentaries are quite daring attempts to address these issues.
10. Interstellar (2014)
One of my favourites is this 2014 Sci-Fi movie directed by visionary director Christopher Nolan. The movie is set shortly, where humanity is suffering from unprecedented weather events caused due to climate change and struggling to survive on Earth. Furthermore, the protagonist Cooper played by Matthew McConaughey, a former NASA pilot, would be appointed to go on a mission in search of a sustainable planet beyond our galaxy for future generations. Whether they find another planet or not, quite like Earth is the story. This movie leaves a message implying there is no planet quite like Earth in our solar system or in our galaxy where we can sustain itself. So, this movie does force us to think, why don't we take necessary care of whatever we have and work combinedly to tackle the ongoing climate crisis, making it sustainable for future generations? Similarly, one of the movies I would recommend is the critically acclaimed Snowpiercer (2013), directed by Korean visionary director Bong Joon Ho. Ignoring this movie would be an injustice to the French graphic novel "Le Transperceneige" written by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette. This movie is set in a post-apocalyptic era (2031) when humanity failed in an experiment to tackle global warming by injecting atmospheric aerosols into the troposphere, which leads to an ice age, and the Earth is frozen; only a handful of people have survived and travelled around the Earth in a train. What happens next is the plot of this movie, which is a must-watch.
This is such a nice compilation. I only watched Princess Mononoke and Interstellar and now the rest is in my bucket list 😻.
I applaud you for including Mononoke here 😍. Description is on point!