This documentary first aired in Britain in May 1994 during the height of the Ogoni conflict in which a small Nigerian minority, the Ogoni, rose up against the oppression and exploitation perpetrated by Shell in their collaboration with the Nigerian military government and powerful Western economic interests. The peaceful Ogoni protests were violently ended by the military government in 1995 with the unlawful hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer, journalist and activist for the Ogoni people. Saro-Wiwa succeeded in reaching out to the international community to put pressure on those holding the Ogoni hostage. In the end, he may not have achieved all the goals set out by the Ogoni, but he drew attention to social grievances which were falsely believed to be exclusive to the colonial era.
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7.4This documentary follows oceanographer Sylvia Earle's campaign to save the world's oceans from threats such as overfishing and toxic waste.
6.4A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline.
7.8An unlikely team of activists and innovators hatches a bold mission to save endangered species.
7.1Takes us inside the world of Anonymous, the radical "hacktivist" collective that has redefined civil disobedience for the digital age. The film explores early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, then moves to Anonymous' raucous beginnings on the website 4chan. Through interviews with current members, people recently returned from prison or facing trial, writers, academics, activists and major players in various "raids," the documentary traces Anonymous’ evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown movement with a global reach, the most transformative civil disobedience of our time.
7.1An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.
5.9The story about three radical environmentalists coming together to execute the most intense protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam.
7.0Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.
7.6Wildlife activists and investigators put their lives on the line to battle the illegal African ivory trade, in this suspenseful on-the-ground documentary.
6.7During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
7.5An ecological drama/documentary, filmed throughout the globe. Part thriller, part meditation on the vanishing wonders of the sub-aquatic world.
6.4The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Bennett Holiday is an American lawyer in charge of facilitating a dubious merger of oil companies, while Bryan Woodman, a Switzerland-based energy analyst, experiences both personal tragedy and opportunity during a visit with Arabian royalty. Meanwhile, veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes uncovers an assassination plot with unsettling origins.
7.2The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
7.9The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
7.5In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
7.6Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.
7.4A twice-divorced mother of three who sees an injustice, takes on the bad guy and wins -- with a little help from her push-up bra. Erin goes to work for an attorney and comes across medical records describing illnesses clustered in one nearby town. She starts investigating and soon exposes a monumental cover-up.
6.0When an uptight young man and his fiancée move into his libertine mother's house, the resulting clash of life attitudes shakes everyone up.
7.0Discovering that sharks are being hunted to extinction, and with them the destruction of our life support system - activist and filmmaker Rob Stewart embarks on a dangerous quest to stop the slaughter. Following the sharks - and the money - into the elusive pirate fishing industry, Stewart uncovers a multi-billion dollar scandal that makes us all accomplices in the greatest wildlife massacre ever known.
7.5Film from Andrew Morgan. The True Cost is a documentary film exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet.
8.0“El apagón: Aquí vive gente” is a 23-minute film that explores the socio-economic challenges in Puerto Rico, focusing on the effects of power outages and gentrification driven by the real estate and energy sectors. Through visuals and personal stories, the documentary highlights the experiences of Puerto Rican communities facing these issues.
Michael Franti, winner of the San Francisco Foundation 2009 Community Leadership Awards (the Helen Crocker Russell Award) - artist, activist, founder of Spearhead, for embodying a social movement of justice and activism and being a voice for the vulnerable. By founding the music groups Spearhead and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, as well as the Power to the Peaceful festival, Michael built an underground movement to spread a message of social justice and advocated for underrepresented people. His recent film, I Know I'm Not Alone, highlights the human cost of war and empowers people to utilize their vote and recognize their collective power to impact American foreign policy.
0.0The film follows Postcommodity, an interdisciplinary arts collective comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martinez and Kade L. Twist, who put land art in a tribal context. The group bring together a community to construct the Repellent Fence, a two-mile long ephemeral monument “stitching” together the US and Mexico.
6.5August 1922. An American journalist, Jerry Thompson, travels to the Soviet Union and arrives in Azerbaijan. He visits the settlement of Mardakan in Baku. There, he meets an elderly man at a villa. Thompson can hardly believe what he hears. Standing before him is Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, a once-great oil producer, millionaire, and philanthropist who lost all his wealth after the establishment of Soviet rule. Haji recounts his life story to the guest, a journey that saw him rise from a humble mason to an influential oil industrialist.
In June 2010, French actress Marion Cotillard spent a week in the heart of the tropical forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo with members of Greenpeace France and Greenpeace Africa. She delivers in video a strong testimony on the looting of Congolese forests which benefits a few industrial groups, often European.
9.0The Road Forward is an electrifying musical documentary that connects a pivotal moment in Canada’s civil rights history—the beginnings of Indian Nationalism in the 1930s—with the powerful momentum of First Nations activism today. Interviews and musical sequences describe how a tiny movement, the Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood, grew to become a successful voice for change across the country. Visually stunning, The Road Forward seamlessly connects past and present through superbly produced story-songs with soaring vocals, blues, rock, and traditional beats.
9.0In a country that prides itself on democracy, a group of activists, known for chalking messages and holding signs, faces a terrifying escalation: repression so severe that their right to speak freely becomes their last, desperate stand.
0.0Hear the inside story of Huey Newton and the Black Panthers with this documentary that examines their efforts to promote the rights of African Americans as well as the organization's violent tactics, including the killing of a police officer. The film features a rare jailhouse interview with Newton discussing the role of revolution and civil disobedience, plus footage of several Panthers' bullet-riddled homes following police raids.
0.0Documentary film about the controversial movement of women seeking ordination in the Roman Catholic Church. More and more women are answering a spiritual calling to take on the vestments of priesthood and seek equality in the religion they love. These daring women have risked banishment, loss of livelihood, and even excommunication to take part in what the Church calls illicit ordinations. The Vatican has vowed to end this threat to the male hierarchy, even forbidding the mere discussion of female priests. The papacy has reached a time of crisis and the controversy over women's role, and their place in the Church, must be addressed if the Vatican is to have any relevance in the 21st century.
6.4A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline.
7.2From the acclaimed director of American Movie, the documentary follows former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter Michael Ruppert. He recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more.
10.0The Real Story of Fake Democracy. Filmed over three years in five countries, FREEDOM FOR THE WOLF is an epic investigation into the new regime of illiberal democracy. From the young students of Hong Kong, to a rapper in post-Arab Spring Tunisia and the viral comedians of Bollywood, we discover how people from every corner of the globe are fighting the same struggle. They are fighting against elected leaders who trample on human rights, minorities, and their political opponents.
6.5An oil platform dramatically goes down on the Norwegian coast, and researchers try to find out what happened when they realize this is just the start of something even more serious.
0.0Through interviews with key AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) stakeholders from over the years coupled with archival video footage culled from AHF's 30 years of advocacy, care and activism, 'Keeping the Promise' tells a compelling story of AHF's history while offering a glimpse of, and road map to its future.
8.2Pussy Riot make a comeback after a long absence to stand with Ukraine. Their story and their struggle are told through archival footage and interviews with the group’s members.
7.4When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
6.1When 19-year-old gay-rights activist Tommy and 24-year-old Alan first meet in 1973, they find themselves on the opposite sides of the political coin...
0.0An initiative discusses a videotape in which a group of activists portrays themselves and their work against the "nuclear power mafia." After argumentatively and polemically confronting the economic and political power of the energy industry, the activists call for the shutdown of escalators to counteract people's electro-paralysis.
6.9The Australian Aborigines (in this film anyway) believe that this is the place where the green ants go to dream, and that if their dreams are disturbed, it will bring down disaster on us all. The Aborigines' belief is not shared by a giant mining company, which wants to tear open the soil and search for uranium.
0.0The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life poetically narrates the story of a community of Iranian Americans who have made the San Francisco Bay Area their home over the past five decades. The film explores Iranian immigration through turbulent histories of dissent, revolution, war, and separation, and the reinvention of identity in a new land and culture. The Dawn is Too Far highlights how Iranian students, activists, and artists have navigated displacement while drawing on and influencing Bay Area culture. This community offers a more nuanced story of the Iranian diaspora—the ways that this community enriches the region where they live, work, and build families. The Dawn is Too Far undermines the tired and overplayed news headlines that are dominated by narratives of enmity and mistrust between the government of Iran and the U.S., to offer a more humane understanding of the how people's lives and the sacrifices they make are part of the larger story of immigration.
