For many years, some critics of the environmental movement have charged that its intrinsic goals are antithetical to economic growth, but with the current economic crisis, increasing resources in alternative technologies and sustainable fuels, among other eco-friendly items, are viewed as a way to break through the economic impasse.

Since the first celebrated Earth Day in 1970, filmmakers have increasingly turned their attention to the environmental crisis as a way of articulating the conflicts involving over-consumption, corporate abuse, and degradation of the planet. During the late 1960s, one of the most beloved popularizers of the ecological movement, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, raised awareness of threats to the world's oceans through his television programs, The World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and The Undersea World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Having grown up in a mentality of man versus nature, however, Cousteau was not always gentle with living things in the environment. In making his earlier documentary, The Silent World (1956), the crew of Calypso brutally killed a school of sharks and dynamited a coral reef to flesh out the creatures that lived there. Cousteau's actions on behalf of the environment, fortunately, developed over time. It's true for many others.

Films about the environment have taken the form of several genres - narrative features (Erin Brockovich, for example), animation (the wonderful WALL-E), dramatized biographies of activists (Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey), or traditional documentaries. Koyaanisqatsi, the landmark 1983 film by Godfrey Reggio with memorable music by Philip Glass, showed us remarkable natural and manmade landscapes of a world "out of balance," but through an unconventional experimental genre. An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Al Gore's film about global warming, is the most well-known of current films on the subject.

A Selection of Reframe Films on the Environment
 

The Gifts (1972): Robert McBride, Robert Richter. “The most beautiful film on ugliness ever made,” according to Variety. An Oscar nominated documentary short.  Genre: Documentary. TRT: 30 min.
 

Can Tropical Rain Forests Be Saved? (1992):  Robert Richter, director. A global investigation of this global issue, filmed in

Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Los Angeles Times: "Dramatic... will keep viewers riveted to the screen." New York Daily News: "Mind boggling... well worth your time." Genre: Documentary. TRT: 116 min

For Export Only: Pesticides (1980): Robert Richter, director. The “circle of poison” exposed. Global corporations export banned or severely restricted pesticides to developing nations. Washington Post: "If you ever wanted to know how people behave in an open unregulated market, these films provide the answer." Genre: Documentary. TRT: 57 min

City Farmers (1996): Meryl Joseph, director. Depicting one of the most successful community garden movements ever, City Farmers journeys down New York's meanest streets where inner-city residents transform the ratty rubble of abandoned land into prolific gardens that revitalize broken neighborhoods. Genre: Documentary, Short Subject. TRT: 32 min

Natural Security (2006): African Environmental Film Foundation. From Kenya’s coast to its mountains, this film shows how people benefit from

their natural ecosystems, both financially & through the supply of water from natural springs, the pollination of food crops by insects, and the maintenance of biodiversity. Genre: Documentary. TRT: 62 min
 

Running Dry (2002): African Environmental Film Foundation. A visually dramatic and hard-hitting documentary about water issues in Kenya (where people have just 30% of the water they need), explaining water cycles and threats to water availability due to deforestation, pollution and abuse of water reserves. Genre: Documentary. TRT: 82 min

Charcoal Traffic (2008): Nathan Collett, director. A dramatic story of two brothers trapped in a murderous cycle of environmental and cultural devastation in Somalia. First fictional film shot in Somalia in over 15 years. All local cast, no previous acting experience. Genre: Drama, Short Subject. TRT: 7 min

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