Directors: Myron Dewey, James Spione, Josh Fox
Throughout this documentary, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline is documented. Water is presented as sacred and living, worthy of agency and preservation, making nature the focal point. By highlighting Indigenous viewpoints that regard humans as a part of, not above, the Earth, it undermines the idea that humans are superior. The movie presents land and water as sentient beings and challenges extractivist philosophies. It highlights our shared responsibility for the environment by drawing a comparison between corporate power and grassroots ecological care.
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Directors: Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Leviathan, which was filmed on a commercial fishing boat with GoPros, transports viewers to the turbulent, multisensory world of the sea. The film presents fish, water, seagulls, machines, and human beings as equally important, disregarding traditional narrative, narration, and hierarchy. By doing this, Leviathan presents a world in which people are but a single component in a more extensive, interconnected system, challenging the idea that humans are superior. The film forces spectators to interact directly with the tumultuous interaction of bodies, elements, and machinery without the need for dialogue or commentary. It turns into a vivid experience of a world in which all creatures share experiences and activity. Leviathan encourages reflection on the intertwined relationship between nature, humans, technology, and labor on one of the Earth’s most exploited environments.
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Director: Michelangelo Frammartino
The still, observational film Le Quattro Volte takes place in a small Italian town. Four life cycles are depicted: an elderly shepherd, a young goat, a tree, and the tree's eventual transformation to charcoal. Even though there is some language spoken, it is not very important because the narrative is told through patient, careful images and natural noises. In order to portray them as components of a common cycle of life and change, the movie gives equal weight to people, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects. The notion that humans are the most significant or central beings is thus called into question. Rather, it encourages viewers to consider their position within the greater cycles of nature by portraying all forms of living as interrelated and equally significant.
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Directors: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky
With images of enormous industrial sites, landfills, deforestation, and mining operations worldwide, this film examines how people have fundamentally altered our planet. It portrays the Earth as having been drastically changed by human activity, to the point where scientists today contend that we have entered a new geological era known as the Anthropocene. The movie considers the scope of human systems and their long-term effects in addition to individual acts. By showing people as a force as strong—and frequently as destructive—as any natural phenomena, rather than as something distinct from it, it highlights the negative effects of human exceptionalism. Rather than showing humans as caretakers of the planet, it urges viewers to reconsider our role as part of Earth’s systems, with responsibility for the damage done and the future ahead.
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Director: Emma Davie and Peter Mettler
The documentary Becoming Animal examines the close connections between the natural world and human perception. The film, which was filmed in Wyoming's forest areas and among its wildlife, combines David Abram-inspired philosophical narration with detailed examinations of animals, scenery, and everyday things. The movie makes the argument that human senses are a part of the world itself, molded by it and interconnected with it, rather than viewing nature as something distinct to be observed. Viewers are encouraged to feel their way into a more attentive engagement with the environment around them because of the slow and immersive pace. Becoming Animal encourages a perspective that is less about mastery and more about involvement, vulnerability, and the shared experiences of people, animals, and environments.
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Director: Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
In the quiet, observational documentary Sweetgrass, a group of sheep herders in Montana are observed as they lead their flock across the mountains. There is mainly only the sound of humans, animals, and the landscape—neither music nor documentary style narration. The movie depicts the mental and physical toll that both humans and animals endure, without romanticizing nature or the labor that goes into it. The herders are portrayed as laboring on the land rather than as being in charge of it. Animals are portrayed as active characters in the narrative rather than as background or symbolic elements. Sweetgrass questions the notion that people are superior to or distinct from nature by presenting the everyday reality of this shared world.
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Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
The black-and-white documentary Gunda chronicles the day-to-day activities of a pig named Gunda as well as cows and chickens on a farm. There are long, patient shots of the animals moving through their environments, together with natural sounds, but no narration, music, or talk. The absence of human voices and narration allows the film to focus entirely on the presence, feelings, and life rhythms of the animals. Instead of humanizing them, it allows viewers to experience the animals' lives as they see fit. Gunda emphasizes animals' uniqueness and sensitivity without portraying them as resources or symbols. The movie offers a subtle but significant change in the way we usually view the nonhuman world by making room for viewers to consider animals as subjects of their own lives.
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Director: Sean Penn
Into the Wild is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who decides to live on his own in the Alaskan wilderness after leaving his family, money, and belongings. The movie, which is based on Jon Krakauer's book, follows him as he travels across the US in pursuit of a more genuine and fulfilling life away from contemporary culture. Nature is portrayed both as a place of beauty and freedom, but also as something indifferent and unforgiving. The movie criticizes materialism and the delusions of control that individuals frequently bring into wild environments. McCandless's experience demonstrates both how much people want to be back in touch with nature and how risky it may be to undervalue it. The wilderness is a force with its own rules rather than a blank canvas for human dreams.
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