Social Justice films – this is NOT an exhaustive list.
Some films are available on line, some
from libraries or other distributors.
Views from a Social Perspective
Capitalism – a love story. Michael Moore
The Happy Movie
http://www.thehappymovie.com/film/
One Peace at a Time A film about a messed up world and how we could fix it
Religulous
A caustic look at religious beliefs and the impact dogmatism has on societies.
Environmental Activism
Addicted to Plastic
Examines the pervasiveness of plastics in modern society and suggests ways of dealing with the
lasting effects of a product that does not biodegrade.
The Carbon Connection
41 minutes 2007
Green Planet Films
In Scotland, oil and chemical companies have polluted a town since the
1940s. In Brazil, destructive monoculture eucalyptus tree plantations are
swallowing up water and land. Both places now share a new threat,
carbon trading. As part of the deal to reduce greenhouse gases that
contribute to climate change, major polluters can now buy carbon credits
to reduce emissions elsewhere instead of cutting their own. For those
living next to the oil industry in Scotland this means continued pollution
by their toxic neighbours. In Brazil, the carbon credit market gives an
injection of cash for more planting of damaging eucalyptus trees.
The film follows a group of people from each area that tells their stories
via video cameras. From mental health issues in Scotland to the loss of
medicinal plants in Brazil, the communities discover the connections they
have with each other.
carbontradewatch.org
Clean Bin Project
75 minutes 2010
Director: Grant Baldwin
Is it possible to live completely waste free? Partners Jen and Grant go head to
head in a competition to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the
least landfill garbage in an entire year. Their light-hearted competition is set
against an examination of the sobering problem of waste in North American
society. Even as Grant and Jen start to garner interest in their project, they
struggle to find meaning in their seemingly minuscule influence on the largescale environmental impacts of our “throw-away society.”
Featuring interviews with renowned artist Chris Jordan and marine pollution
expert Captain Charles Moore, The Clean Bin Project presents the serious
topic of waste reduction with optimism, humour, and inspiration for individual action. Best Canadian Documentary,
Projecting Change Film Festival
cleanbinmovie.com
Dive!
Documentary about feeding a family by dumpster diving and living off the food waste thrown
away by grocery stores.
No Impact Man
A New York City resident attempts to live with no environmental impact for 6 months.
Point Holmes Sensitive Natural Areas
12 min. 2011
Filmmaker: Kerry Dawson
Point Holmes, near the quiet seaside community of Comox on eastern Vancouver Island, is home to two unique but
threatened sensitive natural areas. A rare Krummholz Garry Oak ecosystem of stunted and twisted oak trees is found
along the shoreline, where powerful wind and wave systems shape the landscape. Further inland, an ancient series of
undulating sand dunes covered with a blanket of pine, fir, and salal is one of only two assemblages of this type known to
exist in BC. The video looks at the threats facing the area and examines the question of appropriate land use decisionmaking.
Taking Root – The vision of Wangari Maathai , Nobel Peace prize recipient.
Waking the Green Tiger
78 min. 2011
Director: Gary Marcuse
Seen through the eyes of activists, farmers, and journalists, Waking
the Green Tiger follows an extraordinary campaign to stop a huge
dam project on the upper Yangtze River in southwestern China.
Featuring astonishing archival footage never seen outside China, and
interviews with a government insider and witnesses, the
documentary also examines Chairman Mao’s campaigns to conquer
nature in the name of progress.
An environmental movement takes root when a new environmental
law is passed and, for the first time in China’s history, ordinary
citizens have the democratic right to speak out and take part in
government decisions. Activists test their freedom to challenge a dam using documentary film footage to reveal the fate
of a farming community moved to make way for another dam. The movement these activists trigger could transform
China.
Voted one of Top Ten Canadian films, at Vancouver Int’l Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Planet in Focus
facetofacemedia.ca
A World Without Water
90 min. 2006
Director: Brian Woods
Within our lifetime over half of the world’s population will be living without
access to safe water and sanitation. Eight-year-old Vanessa and her parents walk
almost a mile down the cliffs of El Alto in Bolivia to collect water from an
unreliable well every day. Yet they live just a few hundred metres from their city’s
main water treatment plant and can see millions of gallons just beyond the barbed
wire fence. They are victims of increasing water commodification. The struggle
for this precious resource is explored through compelling stories of families living
in Bolivia, Detroit, Dar Es Salaam and Rajasthan.
First Nations Issues
Rainforest
52 minutes 2011
Director: Richard Boyce
Inspired by his relationship with a Kwaxkwaka’wakw elder, Richard
Boyce embarks upon a cinematic journey contrasting the tree farms
that dominate the landscape surrounding his home with an ancient
rainforest on the Pacific Coast. Guided by passion and a
determination to honour reality, Boyce travels to the most remote
corner of Vancouver Island, through some of the most intensive
logging on the planet, into a wilderness that is on the brink of
extinction. The trees, ranging from seedlings to massive 1,200-year
old colossi, thrive along the banks of an ancient river flood plain,
which provides for diverse life forms in the temperate rainforest.
This film is an evocative journey, contrasting modern logging with forestry as practiced for ten thousand years by First
Nations people.
rainforestmovie.ca
Stones from the River’s Edge
May 4, 2012 The Fifth Estate (CBC Television)
An examination of an unusual school in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and its brave efforts to save First
Nations youth at risk.
Social Activism
Blindsight
108 min
2006
Director: Lucy Walker
A blind American climber, admired by a group of blink Tibetan children in a special school in Llasa, agrees to take a select
group of young teenagers to climb a peak next to Everest. The experience puts in question the ethics of climbers, the drive to
summit, and what is really important, culturally and emotionally.
Born into Brothels – children of Indian prositutes photograph their world
California Dreaming
51 minutes 2010
Filmmaker: Bregtje van der Haak
California is the state of new beginnings, dreams and movie stars, surfers and a wonderful climate. But the Golden State
is bankrupt and the city of Los Angeles is running out of cash. Public services are being cut and unemployment keeps
rising. At the same time, optimism, entrepreneurship and the belief in the American dream are stronger than ever.
In Los Angeles, we follow five people who are going through a transformation in their lives during this crisis. Meet some
of the pioneers reinventing the new America and learn how they see the future.
vo.do/californiadreaming
A Chemical Reaction
77 minutes
2009
Director: Paul Tukey
A Chemical Reaction tells the story of one of the most powerful and effective
community initiatives in the history of North America. It started with one lone
voice in 1984. Dermatologist Dr. June Irwin noticed a connection between her
patients’ health conditions and their exposure to chemical pesticides and
herbicides. With relentless persistence, she brought her concerns to town meetings
to warn her fellow citizens that the chemicals they were putting on their lawns
posed severe health risks. Dr. Irwin’s persuasive arguments and data to back her
findings eventually led the town of Hudson, Quebec to enact a by-law that banned
the use of all chemical pesticides and herbicides.
The mighty chemical companies mounted a legal challenge to the town and eventually the case made it to the Supreme
Court of Canada. The town’s right to protect its citizens was upheld, and other municipalities followed suit. This is an
inspiring film about citizen activism.
safelawns.org
Desert Flower
2010
The Downtown Project
52 minutes 2011
Director: Isabelle Longtin
Seventeen hundred tenants from 70 different countries, with an average household income of $12,000, in a series of
buildings covering almost a square kilometre: Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance is the largest social housing complex in
Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, just a stone’s throw from Montreal’s bustling SainteCatherine Street and Saint Lawrence Boulevard, it has retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty,
prostitution, drugs, and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there?
Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside and met the residents. The
result is The Downtown Project, a documentary that reveals a complex multi-ethnic reality made up of compelling
personal stories and social movements. Grappling with the stresses of immigration and cultural integration, the projects’
diverse inhabitants pride themselves on the sense of community they share.
nfb.ca
Freedom Riders
115 min. 2010
Director: Stanley Nelson
Freedom Riders is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months
in 1961 that changed the United States forever. From May until November 1961, more than
400 black and white Americans risked their lives—many endured savage beatings and
imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through
the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter
racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.
Freedom Riders features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal
government officials, and journalists who witnessed the Rides firsthand. Filmmaker Stanley Nelson: “The lesson of the
Freedom Rides is that great change can come from a few small steps taken by courageous people. And that sometimes to
do any great thing, it’s important that we step out alone.”
firelightmedia.tv
The Government Vs John Lennon – the story of how Lennon won his case to remain in the
US ****
Kinshasa Symphony
95 min. 2010
Filmmakers: Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer
Kinshasa is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and
the third-largest city in Africa. Almost ten million people live here
and they number among the poorest inhabitants on this planet.
Kinshasa is also the home of Central Africa’s only symphony
orchestra.
Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony. A power cut occurs just before the last movement.
Problems like this are the least of the worries facing the orchestra. In
the 15 years of its existence, the musicians have survived two
putsches, various crises, and a war, but concentrating on the music
and hopes for a better future keep them going. Kinshasa Symphony is
a study of people in one of the world’s most chaotic cities doing their best to maintain one of the most complex systems
of joint human endeavour, a symphony orchestra. The film is about the Congo, the people in Kinshasa and the power of
music.
Awards include: Most Popular Nonfiction Film Award, 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival; Best
Cinematography, Rhode Island International Film Festival 2010
kinshasa-symphony.com
Survival, Strength, Sisterhood
Sat 12:15 pm Theatre 5
34 min. 2011
Filmmakers: Alejandro Zuluaga and Harsha Walia
Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown
Eastside documents the 20-year history of the annual Women’s Memorial
March for Missing and Murdered Women in Vancouver, Coast Salish
Territories. By focusing on the voices of women who live, love, and work
in the Downtown Eastside, this film debunks the sensationalism
surrounding a neighbourhood deeply misunderstood, and celebrates the
complex and diverse realities of women organizing for justice.
The Third Wave
94 min
2011
Directors: Alison Thompson & Oscar Gubernati
Immediately following the devastating tsunami of 2004, a small, independent group of people gather in Sri
Lanka with one burning desire: to help those most affected by the disaster. Their volunteer experience is
captured in this revealing film. A thoughtful look at why people volunteer in extreme circumstances, and
the benefits and drawbacks of their best intentions.
The Times of Harvey Milk
San Francisco gay activist Harvey Milk was murdered for his stand on LGBT rights. His work
inspired the gay rights movement throughout North America.
Labour, Peasants & the control of Food Resources
Bananas – suing Dole for the poisoning of workers
The Chocolate Farmer
52 minutes
2010
Director: Rohan Fernando
“Without the land, we will cease to exist.”
In an unspoiled corner of southern Belize, cacao farmer and father Eladio Pop
manually works his plantation in the tradition of his Mayan ancestors: as a steward
of the land. A tender and moving family tale, director Rohan Fernando’s lush
cinematic journey intimately captures a year in the life of the Pop family as they
struggle to preserve their values in a world that is suddenly and dramatically
changing.
Worldscreen.com says The Chocolate Farmer “bears intimate witness to one man
confronting the forces of globalization.” A lament for cultures lost, this timely and
vital film challenges our deeply held assumptions of progress.
nfb.ca
Chocolate: The Bitter Truth
2010 BBC
This documentary explores the use of child labour and child trafficking in the chocolate industry in
Burkina Fasso, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
The Dark Side of Chocolate
2009
Filmmakers: M. Mistrati & R. Romano
A documentary about the continued allegations of trafficking of children and child labour in the
international chocolate industry.
Permaculture:The Growing Edge
45 minutes
2010
Filmmakers: Donna Read & Starhawk
Permaculture: The Growing Edge is an antidote to environmental despair, a hopeful and practical look at a path to a
viable, flourishing future. The film introduces us to inspiring projects; visiting David Holmgren’s homestead, sheet
mulching an inner-city garden, transforming an intersection into a gathering place with City Repair, and joining
mycologist Paul Stamets as he uses mushrooms to clean up an oil spill.
We meet some of the key figures in the permaculture movement including Australians Bill Mollison and David
Holmgren who started this movement in the 1970s. The film gives us a glimpse into this worldwide network of skilled
ecological designers, teachers, food growers, natural builders, environmental activists, and visionaries.
belili.org
Saving the Seed
20 minutes
2011
Filmmakers: Scott Turner and Claire Kane Boychuk
Besides a brief cry of indignation from world leaders during the coup d’état of July 2009, for decades Honduras has
rarely made the news. But around the globe there is renewed interest in food security and, as the planet heats up, this
small republic in Central America offers a rare lesson in resilience.
Saving the Seed presents an intimate portrait of a dedicated team of farmers- scientists in the hillsides of Honduras who
are on the frontlines of climate change research and adaptation. In a country still dominated by big, cash-crop
plantations, the film gives us unique access to the personal stories and daily lives of farmers succeeding on marginal
lands. Most importantly, it documents a new approach to rural development that is putting the right to self-determination
back in the hands of farm families. Whether it’s corn, beans, or rice, the secret to a strong food system is simple: saving
the seed.
savingtheseed.org
Urban Roots
93 min. 2011
Director: Mark McInnis
The industrial powerhouse of a lost American era has died, and the skeleton
left behind is present-day Detroit. Now, against all odds, in the empty lots, in
the old factory yards, and in between the sagging blocks of company housing,
seeds of change are taking root. A small group of dedicated citizens, allied
with environmental and academic groups, have started an urban
environmental movement with the potential to transform, not just a city after
its collapse, but also a country after the end of its industrial age.
Urban Roots is the inspiring story of a group of dedicated Detroiters working
tirelessly to fulfill their vision for locally grown, sustainably farmed food in a
city where people have found themselves cut off from real food and limited to the lifeless offerings of fast food chains,
mini-marts, and grocery stores stocked with processed food from thousands of miles away.
treemedia.com
La Via Campesina
20 minutes
2010
This short film documents the international peasant’s movement La Via Campesina and its struggle for peasant’s
agriculture and food sovereignty all around the world. Made up of 150 organizations in 70 countries and with more than
200 million members, the movement brings together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless
people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants, and agricultural workers from around the world.It defends smallscale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity.
La Via Campesina strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people
and nature.
viacampesina.org
Drugs, Crime & Social Justice
Raw Opium
84 min 2010
Director: Peter Findlay
Opium is a commodity that has tremendous power, both to ease pain and to destroy lives. For centuries, the opium poppy
has played a pivotal role, not just in the lives of people who grow, manufacture and use it, but also in the sphere of
international relations. In Raw Opium, we meet a variety of people with different perspectives including opium growers
in Southeast Asia, a UN drug enforcement officer on the border of Afghanistan and a former Indian government drug
czar.
We are introduced to Portugal’s new, revolutionary policies toward its drug situation and to Vancouver’s Insite Clinic
with its creative approaches to this complex issue. Assumptions about drug addiction and the War on Drugs are
profoundly challenged.
rawopium.com
The Union – The business behind getting high
What drives the underground market in marijuana in British Columbia? What’s it worth to the
economy and what is the impact of prohibition?
War & Violence
Countdown to Zero
An examination of the aftermath of the doctrine of Mutally Assured Destruction and the post
nuclear world.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
74 min
2007
Director: Werner Herzog
Dieter Dengler was bombed out as a village child in Germany in WWII, but seeing the planes as they flew by
instilled in him a deep desire to fly. Later, as an immigrant in the US, he joins the US navy to get his pilot’s
license, and is sent to Vietnam to fight. His experiences as a POW in Laos form the central part of his story
of survival, redemption and forgiveness. The film encourages an examination of how humans treat each
other, our capacity to survive terrible things and to heal.
Triage – Dr James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilema
A challenging film about a Canadian noble laureate and the sad dilemma of who to save in
situations of war.
War, Inc.
A powerful documentary about the rise of the military industrial complex and the threats it
poses to peace. Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara reveals chilling facts after
the release of cold war documents.
Books:
Articles:
Women’s empowerment issues
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/nepal/valuingwomen-assets-community-based-tourism-nepal