Environmental, Health & Animal Documentaries That Encourage Veg Living

We have compiled this list of relatively new documentaries that encourage environmentally and animal friendly healthy plant-based eating.  They are available online or on DVD or both .  Some we have screened at BVS, and some we have not seen yet.  We present this list of film resources that you can explore and consider using in your own outreach for vegetarianism.

A Delicate Balance (Australia)
84 minutes
A Delicate Balance documents the latest discoveries of some of the most prominent experts on nutrition in the world. Over 50 years of research is skilfully woven into what feels like a detective unravelling the mysteries behind the disease epidemic which has struck affluent countries with a vengeance - disease has been escalating over the last 50 years resulting in 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women being diagnosed with cancer.  Watching this film will help you make informed choices about your health and the environment around you and how to reduce your personal impact.
adelicatebalance.com.au

A Life Connected
12 minutes
“We believe people are born with values that connect them to humanity and the rest of the world in which they live — values of justice, kindness and compassion. Our task is to help each other reconnect.”
www.nonviolenceunited.org/veganvideo.html   watch it online

Eating
88 minutes
“Join over 20 million people throughout the world who have watched this award-winning film. It covers a lot of ground very comprehensively. Among the many highlights are interviews with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Neil Pinckney, Dr. Ruth Heidrich and Dr. Joseph Crowe... What you will get is a virtual one-on-one consultation with some of the world's leading authorities on heart disease reversal.”  Includes segments on environmental and ethical issues.
www.ravediet.com

Meat the Truth
73 minutes
A Dutch-produced documentary, Meat the Truth is done in the style of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and presents the case for meat production’s impact on climate change.  It is a must-see companion film to An Inconvenient Truth, presenting the critical information omitted from the earlier film and contributing to societal discussion about movement towards plant-based diets and thus also a more humane society.
www.meatthetruth.com and www.meatthetruth.nl

Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home
78 minutes
A story of transformation and healing, this film explores the awakening conscience of several people who grew up in traditional farming culture and who have now come to question the basic premises of their inherited way of life. With honest interviews and rare footage demonstrating the emotional lives and intense family bonds of animals most often viewed as living commodities, this groundbreaking documentary shatters stereotypical notions of farmers, farm life, and perhaps most surprisingly, farm animals themselves.
www.tribeofheart.org

Processed People
”Processed People features in-depth discussions with leading health and environmental experts/advocates detailing why so many of us are sick, and offers solutions to our current devastating health crisis. It features insightful interviews from nine preeminent health and environmental experts/advocates. They discuss how and why Americans got into this mess, and what we can do to break the ‘processed people’ cycle.  The DVD contains the full documentary (40 minutes) along with 140 additional minutes of extended personal interviews with the experts, plus another 25 minutes of special feature items.”
www.processedpeople.com

Seeing Through the Fence
83 minutes
Through a series of humorous and poignant interviews conducted across the US and in Greece with “random people,” the documentarian’s family, and activists, Seeing Through the Fence explores our attitudes about the role of food in modern society and our connection, or lack of connection, with both the processes and animals from which our food originates, asking the question, “What prevents ethical principles from being advanced to action?”
www.porchlifeproductions.com

Sustainable Table
52 minutes
Over nine months, Mischa Hedges and Digital Sense Productions traveled the west coast to learn more about our food system. During production, he found that the standard methods of producing food do not take environmental or human health costs into consideration. He also explored the many alternatives to the current agricultural system.  Includes interviews with Howard Lyman (Mad Cowboy) and Kenneth Williams (vegan bodybuilder).
www.sustainabletablemovie.com

The Animals Film
25th Anniversary Edition, 120 minutes
“The most impressive film maudit, possibly too hot to handle, is Victor Schonfeld’s The Animals Film, a polemical onslaught, stuffed with footage never before shown, and a wealth of newly-shot material often taken undercover, which documents...mankind’s degradation, exploitation, and often pointless torture, of the creatures who share our planet... I do not know when I have come out of a screening so moved by the power of the cinema as a medium to transform the entire sensibility of an audience.”
www.victorschonfeld.com

The True Cost of Food
15 minutes, and a 7-minute abridged version; DVD or watch online
Produced by The Sierra Club Sustainable Consumption Committee Mission, this film’s goal is to encourage people to think about the environmental impacts of their consumption choices by providing specific information.
www.sierraclub.org/truecostoffood  

The Witness
43 minutes
“The Witness is one man’s truth that cries out for mass exposure… may be the most important and persuasive film about animals ever made.”
In this award-winning documentary, a construction contractor from a tough Brooklyn neighborhood explains how he feared and avoided animals for most of his life, until the love of a kitten opened his heart, inspiring him to rescue abandoned animals and bring his message of compassion to the streets of New York. With humor and sincerity, he tells the story of his remarkable change in consciousness.
www.tribeofheart.org

Earthlings
90 minutes
Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, music by Moby
Award-winning documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research.  Caution: Content is graphic and disturbing throughout.
www.earthlings.com