Through a partnership is our affiliate to the north, Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA), a number of environmental film DVDs are available for congregations and religious communities to borrow.

To borrow any of the films below, email contactus@vaipl.org with your mailing address and the timing of your screening. A small donation to help cover shipping is appreciated. The borrow time is normally two weeks.

You can check out some IPL Earth Day movie reviews here and here.

Films, by Topic

Global Warming & Climate Change
Belonging
Chasing Ice
Everything’s Cool
An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning
Love Thy Nature
Too Hot Not to Handle

Fossil Fuels
Coal Country
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
Deep Down: A Story from the Heart of Coal Country
Gasland
Gasland 2
Groundswell RISING: Protecting Our Children’s Air & Water
The Last Mountain

Industrial Agriculture and Food Systems
Cowspiracy
Food, Inc.
King Corn
Nourish: Food + Community

Response and Action
Bidder 70
Do the Math
The Island President
Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Reenergize America
Bag It
Renewal: Stories from America’s Religious-Environmental Movement

Other
Tapped

Short Films
Covenant
Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars
Mountain Mourning
Trashed: This is the Story of Garbage
We are all Smith Islanders
Videos on saving energy at home
Young Voices for the Planet films

Feature Films, by release date

Love Thy Nature
Love Thy Nature shows how deeply we’ve lost touch with nature and takes viewers on a cinematic journey through the beauty and intimacy of our relationship with the natural world. Love Thy Nature shows that a renewed connection with nature is key not only to our well being, but also to solving our environmental and climate crises. (2018, 1 hr 16 min)

 

 

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
Cowspiracy is a feature-length environmental documentary that explores the devastating impact that the animal agriculture industry has on the planet. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption and pollution, is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, and is a primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean “dead zones,” and virtually every other environmental ill. Yet, the industry goes almost entirely unchallenged because leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it. (2015, 1 hr 29 min)

Groundswell RISING
Protecting our Children’s Air & Water
Groundswell RISING: Protecting our Children’s Air & Water goes far beyond the subject of hydraulic fracturing. It’s a compelling and optimistic documentary about civil rights, the growing movement to defend our communities from industrial harm, and the tenacious people who are deeply committed to preserving the planet for future generations. (2014, 1 hr 10 min or 52 min)

Gasland 2
Gasland Part II is a provocative follow-up to filmmaker Josh Fox’s award-winning documentary feature debut Gasland. The new film continues to explore the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, arguing how dangerous the process is, and how pervasive the gas industry’s influence on public policy has become…Gasland Part II pierces prevailing myths by arguing how and why cracked wells leak over time, contaminating water and air, hurting families, and endangering the Earth’s climate with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. It also sheds light on the global consequences of fracking, as more and more countries are following the U.S.’s lead in drilling for gas. (2013, 2 hrs 5 min)

Do The Math
This documentary follows Bill McKibben, an environmental author and the founder of the international climate campaign 350.org, on November 2012’s 21-city “Do The Math” tour that helped spark a new fossil fuel divestment campaign that is sweeping the nation. The film also features author Naomi Klein, climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, Rep. Henry Waxman, green jobs visionary Majora Carter, environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Winner Desmond Tutu, and other climate and progressive leaders. Click here to watch online! (2013, 50 min)

Bidder 70
In 2008, as George W. Bush tried to gift the energy and mining industries thousands of cars of pristine Utah wilderness via a widely disputed federal auction, college student Tim DeChristopher monkey-wrenched the process. Bidding $1.7 million, he won 22,000 acres with no intention to drill.

For this astonishing (and successful) act of civil disobedience he was sentenced to two years in federal prison. (2013, 1 hr 13 min)

Chasing Ice
Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers… (2012, 1 hr 15 min)

 

The Island President
An engaging film about one man’s mission to save his nation and perhaps the planet. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced – the survival of his country and everyone in it. Nasheed, who brought democracy to the Maldives after decades of despotic rule, now faces and even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1,200 islands of the Maldives and make them uninhabitable. (2011, 1 hr 41 min)

The Last Mountain
In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal. Nowhere is that concern greater than in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, where a small but passionate group of ordinary citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations, like Massey Energy, from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal. (2011, 95 min)

Gasland
“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…” (2010, 1 hr 44 min)

Deep Down: A Story from the Heart of Coal Country
Deep in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky, where coal is king, Beverly May and Terry Ratliff find themselves at the center of a contentious community battle over a proposed mountaintop removal coal mine. (2010, 57 min)

 

 

Bag It
Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes-single-use disposable bags that we mindlessly throw away. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life and human health? Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world.Jeb’s journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up with us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now. (2010, 1hr 18 min)

Coal Country
In Appalachia, miners and residents are locked in conflict: is mining
and processing coal essential to providing good jobs, or is it destroying the land,
water and air? What does this mean for the rest of America and the world? (2009, 1 hr 25 min)

 

Tapped
Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. (2009, 1 hr 15 min)

Nourish: food + community
Do you ever stop and wonder: What’s the story of my food? Where did it come from, and how did it get to me? Food connects us to some of the most important questions of our time. The food choices we make — individually and as a moiety — create a ripple that is felt around the world. (2009, 50 min)

 

 

Renewal: Stories from America’s Religious-Environmental Movement
Renewal is the first feature-length documentary film to capture the vitality and diversity of today’s religious-environmental activists. From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions, Americans are becoming caretakers of the Earth. With great courage, these women, men and children are re-examining what it means to be human and how we live on this planet. Their stories of combating global warming and the devastation of mountaintop removal, of promoting food security, environmental justice, recycling, land preservation, and of teaching love and respect for life on Earth are the heart of Renewal. (2008, 1 hr 27 min)

Food, Inc.
A film that lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing how 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 environment. The film reveals surprising–and often shocking truths–about what we eat, how it’s produced, and who we have become as a nation. (2008, 91 min)

Belonging
A scientific and spiritual journey into humanity’s footprint on Earth. The film, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, explores the effects of climate change in the Arctic as well as the rest of the world due to the irresponsible use and abuse of high energy technologies. Combining voices from science and spirituality, the film make a case in favor of reducing lifestyles and changing attitudes, from careless, selfish greed to respect for our planet, its people and its many ecosystems. (2008, 52 min)

 

Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Reenergize America
Filmmaker Jeff Barrie offers hope as he turns the camera on himself and asks, “How can I make a difference?” In his journey Barrie explores the source of our electricity and the problems caused by energy production including mountain top removal, childhood asthma and global warming. Along the way he encounters individuals, businesses, organizations, and communities who are leading the way, using energy conservation, efficiency and renewable, green power all while saving money and the environment. (2008, 55 min)

King Corn
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In the film, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm. (2007, 90 min)

Everything’s Cool
A film about America finally “getting” global warming in the wake of the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action. While industry funded nay-sayers sing what just might be their swan song of pseudo- scientific deception, a group of global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, the magic language, the points of leverage that will finally create the political will to move the United States from its reliance on fossil fuels to the new clean energy economy – AND FAST. (2007, 1 hr 29 min)

An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning
A passionate and inspirational look at former Vice President Al Gore’s fervent crusade to halt global warming’s deadly progress by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. With an emphasis on hope, An Inconvenient Truth ultimately shows us that global warming is no longer a political issue, but rather the biggest moral challenge facing our civilization today. (2006, 1 hr 36 min)

 

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
The story of how our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology. Compelling, intelligent, and highly entertaining, the film visits with the world’s top experts and comes to a startling, but logical conclusion – our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined and overhauled. (2006, 1 hr 25 min)

 

Too Hot Not to Handle
A primer on global warming, Too Hot Not to Handle features contributions from leading scientists in the field. In addition to in-depth discussions of such subjects as the greenhouse effect, hurricanes, snowpack, hybrid vehicles and alternative power, the film shows how businesses, local governments and citizens are taking positive actions to reduce global warming emissions. (2006, 53 min)

Short Films:

Young Voices for the Planet The Young Voices for the Planet (YVFP) short documentaries are moving and inspirational films that champion youth solutions to the climate crisis. The diverse youth in the YVFP films learn about climate change, are concerned, and take action. Authentic and positive, the success stories showcase young people speaking out, reducing CO2 through creative win-win solutions, saving money and engaging school administrators, local government, businesses and the public. Their passion,commitment, sincerity and earnestness give the films an emotional punch–and move adult audiences to tears. (2.5 hrs – multiple short films)

Covenant
A short film about people of faith from diverse religious traditions coming together to fight for clean air. In 2006, 19 conventional coal-fired power plants were proposed to be built in Texas and were being fast-tracked by the Governor. Covenant illuminates how a handful of religious leaders put their faith into action and helped organize a grassroots movement that eventually led to a reduction in proposed plants, which went from 19 down to 11. (34 min)

Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars 
Follows the story of Texans fighting a high-stakes battle for clean air. The film introduces the unlikely partners — mayors, ranchers, CEOs, community groups, legislators, lawyers, faith groups, and citizens — that have come together to oppose the construction of 19 conventional coal-fired power plants that were slated to be built in Eastern and Central Texas and that were being fast-tracked by the Governor. (34 min)

Mountain Mourning
Photography and personal stories create an epiphany – a personal awakening – as nature’s beauty is starkly contrasted with scenes of ruin.  Powerful narration is supported by traditional gospel and Appalachian Music to tell this story of tragedy and hope. Mountain Mourning calls upon Christians and their churches to summons moral courage and effective advocacy that will bring healing and justice to this land and its people. (78 min)

Trashed: This is the Story of Garbage … American Style
A provocative investigation of one of the fastest growing industries in North America. The garbage business. The film examines a fundamental element of modern American culture…the disposal of what our society defines as “waste.” It is an issue influenced by every American, most of whom never consider the consequences. Nor, it seems, the implications to our biosphere. At times humorous, but deeply poignant, Trashedexamines the American waste stream fast approaching a half billion tons annually. (60 min)

We are all Smith Islanders
The film explores how global warming is affecting agriculture, wildlife, health and tourism throughout the Chesapeake Bay, and how the crisis is expected to deepen without immediate action. The film also looks at clean energy solutions that can help slow and possibly stop human-induced global warming in the region. Focuses on the waning livelihoods of Smith Island watermen. (35 min)

 

Fighting Global Warming One House At a Time
The story of Maryland’s first 90% renewable energy home. This short film explains how one Takoma Park family is fighting global warming on a budget, and how you can do it too! (20 min)

 

 

 

Easy Energy
A video series created by Michigan Interfaith Power & Light and WARM Training Center that gives simple, low-cost steps for saving energy in your own home. Although many factors in the cost of energy are outside of a homeowner’s control, this is a step-by-step guide to reducing the amount of energy your home needs while making it a healthier, safer, and more comfortable living environment. (46 min)

Online Video Resources

People of Faith as Climate Messengers: Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe