By Prabarna Ganguly
April 22, 2021 will mark 51 years since Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970. We’ve come a long way since then, especially in recent times with the COVID-19 pandemic having long-lasting impacts on the planet. While most of 2020 felt like a gaping unknown with a constant threat of the pandemic on our minds, we walk into Earth Day 2021 with a more positive feeling about what’s to come.
The success of scientific funding and research efforts has borne fruit, with rapid vaccine trials and distributions now becoming largely available around the globe. This sets a hopeful path for public and governmental support of scientific endeavours, as we continue to solve the largest unmitigated threat of them all - climate change. This earth day, we carry hope and a refreshed perspective of our priorities as communities and as a civilization.
As we in Ontario are pushed indoors again in the face of a third province-wide lockdown, Earth Day celebrations will be remote again. Fret not reader! Windsor of Change is ready with your Earth Day fix.
This year, we at Windsor of Change want to celebrate the ethos of Earth day all month round. To get started, we researched and present for your education and involvement, eight documentary films and series that tell stories from across the planet. Each one reveals the intimate balance of life and nature, unexpected friendships, and the value of individual courage.
So dive in deep with some tissues, for these documentaries will make you laugh, cry, act, and most importantly, hope.
My Octopus Teacher
From Black Beauty and Old Yeller, to Seabiscuit and Free Willy, stories about the unique bond shared between humans and animals have graced our imagination for centuries. What makes My Octopus Teacher exceptional is the degree of persistence and curiosity required for this documentary to come to life. My Octopus Teacher is about Craig Foster, who finds himself developing an unlikely friendship with a wild common octopus off the coast of South Africa. For a year, Foster does a daily dive into the wild kelp forest and is continuously mesmerized by the everyday struggles and marvels of the octopus. It's an extraordinary viewing that abounds in self-reflection and yet tenderly captures how unspoken relationships can heal one's heart.
The feelings evoked by the documentary will stay with you for a long time.
Available on Netflix
Country: South Africa
Year: 2020
(NETFLIX)
I am Greta
There is not much about Greta Thunberg that the media hasn't already deconstructed. However, I am Greta is particularly powerful, because we see Thunberg reveal her dual form that is both inspiring and heartbreaking: a climate warrior and a teenager. We see Thunberg's early days as she goes on a weekly school strike for climate, and how her protests lead to opportunities to discuss climate change on larger forums. However, despite her stalwart global impact, Thunberg's age is a constant barrier, with her words seemingly failing to leave a mark on many audiences. Her family and multitudes of worldwide climate action groups provide her with unwavering support, helping her persist. This documentary covers Greta as she journeys from Plymouth to New York City for the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.
This story is more than just hero worship — it is a testament to individual courage that is the bedrock of any lasting action.
Available on Crave and Hulu
Country: Sweden, Germany, USA, UK
Year: 2020
(VOX)
Night on Earth
The premise of the documentary series Night on Earth is deceptively simple—it's a look at what animals are up to after dark. What you get is an incredibly intense and moving observation about basic survival, extended herd journeys, and the remarkable ways that creatures have adapted to rapid human urbanization. Using state-of-the-art night camera technology, the filmmakers capture wildlife of all sizes. In Dusk till Dawn, a herd of elephants becomes potential prey for lions. In Sleepless Cities, turtles battle their way through New York City, and otters run about parts of Singapore. Watch it for the sheer brilliance of the camera work and to learn some of the incredible ways by which animals across the planet survive threats lurking in the darkness.
Night on Earth helps you fall in love with our planet in a whole different light.
Available on Netflix
Country: UK
Year: 2020
(NETFLIX)
Last call for the Bayou
In a five-part miniseries, Last call for the Bayou tackles the issue of the erosion of the Louisiana coastline and its devastating implications for people's livelihoods, safety, and culture. Each episode highlights a different aspect of the wetland ecosystem. Still, they all merge into the same call for action — freshwater diversion from the Mississippi river is the key to rebuilding lost marshland. Members of the United Houma Nation, a Native American tribe in the Louisiana bayou, reminisce the days when they could feel the now-underwater land under them and their reliance on the Mississippi River for centuries. Fishers discuss the impact of freshwater diversion on their livelihoods through shrimp and oyster farming.
Even in such small snippets, Louisiana bayou's story reflects the entire world's actions, with every decision made influencing whether the inches of water continue to rise right in front of the local peoples' eyes.
Thank you for the rain
““Before I die, I will leave a legacy of planting trees.” ”
This is the vow Kisilu Musya, a Kenyan farmer, asks his village to pledge as they discuss options after a flood decimates much of their crop production. Nevertheless, their situation is based on a contradiction. Each year, with increasing drought conditions, they wait for the rain. Recently, the rains have turned to floods, marking two extreme forms of destruction. Musya's journey is that of a farmer and a leader. He attends the COP21 UN Climate Change Conference in 2015 with a warning call for government leaders. Blessed with an abundance of hope and spirit, Musya brings it to his speeches and discussions, only to be devastated by the lack of action and concrete next steps. His journey is an anthem to all those who do not have power but wield it in extraordinary forms through their singular actions.
Watch it for Kisilu and his vow.
Available on OVID TV (free 14-day trial)
Country: Kenya, Norway
Year: 2017
(Thankyoufortherain.com)
2040
In 2040, Damon Gameau writes a video letter to his daughter, Velvet, using "fact-based dreaming" to create a vision of Earth's future. The catch? To only use existing technologies and techniques. The result is an uplifting, enlightening, and hopeful message about innovatively recreating the world. Gameau travels worldwide to learn about emerging ways by which researchers and experts are working to reduce and eventually eradicate the impacts of climate change. In Bangladesh, Gameau learns about microgrids and how people are starting to be in charge of their own energy, creating a decentralized and democratic energy use system. In the US, he sits in a self-driving car, considering the amount of land that could be reclaimed as urban farms and green spaces if ridesharing became a mainstay. In Australia, he explores agriculture and dietary changes — think impossible burgers! 2040 is a poignant and informative meditation on the restoration of Earth being possible if we look at all the options that are already available. The children interviewed in the documentary dream of a clean, respected planet.
In a slew of sadness and harrowing stories on climate change, this one is a light, actively working on hope, action, and realistic answers — an absolute must-watch.
Available on Eventive
Country: Australia
Year: 2019
(Madman Entertainment)
Seaspiracy
There is no easy way to say it. Seaspiracy makes for difficult viewing. The documentary filmmaker Ali Tabrizi jumps from Japan to Hong Kong, Scotland to England to understand the commercial fishing industry. What he unfolds has been heralded by many as a conspiracy, a shallow assessment of the ocean's current state, meant to instill more fear than hope. While that judgment is a personal choice for us to make, what the documentary reveals cannot be unseen. The effects of dolphin hunting, shark fin trade, bycatch, and industrial fishing are stark. The documentary lays a large amount of the blame on the severely under-regulated fishing industry for declining marine life. The filmmakers also question whether we can change our food habits given the realization that "sustainable" may be an empty catchword with no proper definition. Whether or not one is moved to do so, the documentary does reveal something critical—choices matter.
Be it individual or on a government scale, the present and choices we make will dictate the future of the oceans and us.
Available on Netflix
Country: UK
Year: 2021
(NETFLIX)
Virunga
Set against the backdrop of Eastern Congo, Virunga is an incredible story about rangers risking their lives to save Africa's most biodiverse national park, which also holds almost one-third of the world's wild mountain gorillas. The investigative and nature documentary highlights the complex conflict between conservation efforts and the oil drilling interest of SOCO, a British company, in 50% of the park area. This is further complicated and marred by the deadly Rwandan civil war along its boundaries. The unrelenting courage of the park rangers stems from their recognition that Virunga is not just any park—it is the last stronghold that can bring prosperity to the country through tourism and job opportunities.
Virunga is a nail-biting and heart-wrenching exposé on the continuing imperialist gaze of western nations on Congo and the rising tide of freedom and internal development in the country.
Available on Netflix
Country: UK, Congo
Year: 2014
(Virungamovie.com)
Join us at WOC for our Earth Day celebrations with these recommendations, and share your thoughts and pictures with us in the comments below, or tag us @windsorofchange on Instagram and @windsoroc on Twitter.