Here are some recommended movies for learning and sharing more about our food choices…
Chow Down
This documentary examines the effects of plant-based nutrition on diseases like diabetes and heart disease. With lighthearted animation and piercing expert interviews, CHOW DOWN exposes the three factors that fatally impact our country’s health: the medical community’s allegiance to the status quo, the government’s allegiance to the food industry, and Americans’ allegiance to cheap, convenient food.
A Delicate Balance – The Truth
A Delicate Balance documents the latest discoveries of some of the most prominent experts on nutrition in the world. Over 50 years of research is skillfully woven into what feels like a detective unraveling the mysteries behind the disease epidemic which has struck affluent countries with a vengeance – disease has been escalating over the last 50 years resulting in 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women being diagnosed with cancer.
Diet For A New America
This video presents author John Robbins addressing issues from his best-selling book of the same name, on what he perceives as the unhealthful dietary practices in America. Son of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream founder, and a proponent of the vegetarian lifestyle, Robbins states his case for eating a diet of grains and vegetables. He talks with nutrition experts from Cornell University about the disadvantages of America’s high-cholesterol diet. An animal rights advocate, Robbins shares his thoughts on the inhumane circumstances in which many animals are raised.
Dirt
The expression “common as dirt” wouldn’t exist if there weren’t an awful lot of dirt in this world. But is there as much as we think — or even as much as we need? And what’s been happening to it? Dirt is the outer layer of the Earth and the place where nearly all the world’s vegetation comes to life, but the 20th Century was a bad time for dirt — the rise of corporate farming practices have led to reliance of fertilizers with negative long-term effects on the soil, while clear-cutting of rainforests and global warming are making it harder to grow the food the world needs, making workable soil an increasingly scarce commodity. Filmmakers Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow offer a witty but incisive look at dirt, what’s in it, how it’s used and how we must protect it in the documentary Dirt! The Movie. Adapted in part from the book Dirt! The Ecstatic Skin of Earth by William Bryant Logan, Dirt! The Movie received its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Eating
From beloved cult auteur Henry Jaglom, comes a sophisticated comedy about women, love, neuroses and the food that binds the all. At a fashionable birthday party in Southern California, a parade of women playfully mingle and muse on their body image, hang-ups, eating disorders, relationships and a conformist society obsessed with beauty. For these partygoers, even their untouched slices of cake provide insight into the love-hate relationship between femmes and food. A group of women at a birthday party sit around and reveal their feelings about food, life, and each other.
Fast Food Nation
A dramatic feature based on material from the incendiary book Fast Food Nation, a no-holds-barred exploration of the fast food industry that ultimately revealed the dark side of the “All American Meal.”
Food, Inc.
Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. 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 own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
Food Matters
This is a documentary about nutrition, exploring malnutrition and cancer causes. The film presents the thesis that a selective diet can play a key role in treating a range of health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and depression, often without the need of medical treatment. Furthermore, it tends to label the medical industry as a “sickness industry” profiting from sickness as opposed to health, and goes up to the point of accusing the medical and pharmaceutical industries of a conspiracy to perpetuate poor health, and thus, maximize their profit.
Forks Over Knives
This feature film examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods. Focusing on the research of two food scientists, this earnest documentary reveals that despite broad advances in medical technology, the popularity of modern processed foods has led to epidemic rates of obesity, diabetes and other diseases.
Fresh
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.
The Future Of Food
This documentary offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed about the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. The Future of Food reveals that there is a revolution going on in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America, a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.
Gasland 2010
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 “Saudi 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. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.
Good Food
An intimate look at the farmers, ranchers, and businesses that are creating a more sustainable food system in the Pacific Northwest.
Grocery Star Wars
Watch an amusing Star Wars parody created by the Organic Trade Association to spread the seeds of the “organic rebellion.” Featuring Cuke Sykwalker, Princess Lettuce, Ham Solo, Chewbroccoli, Darth Tater and Obi-Wan Canoli.
The Great Squeeze – Surviving the Human Project
Our dependence on cheap and abundant fossil fuels has been feeding the engine of our economic system for the past 200 years. Although it has lifted modern civilizations to new heights, prosperity has come at a tremendous price. We are now at a point where humanity’s demands for natural resources far exceed the earth’s capacity to sustain us. The extraction and the consumption of these resources in the past two centuries have changed our climate and ecosystems so significantly, that a new geological era had to be created. These man-made threats become even more ominous when you look at them together as part of a global trend.
Home
In 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. the price to pay is high, but it’s too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth’s riches and changes its patterns of consumption. By bringing unique footage from over fifty countries, all seen from air, this film lays a foundation stone for the edifice that, together, we must rebuild.
Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat
Obesity causes 110,000 American deaths each year and plays a role in one-third of all cancer deaths. Yet, despite ballooning concerns, little is being done on the public policy level, as this probing documentary explains. Exploring the issue from individual, political, scientific and cultural perspectives, the film features appearances by Bill Clinton, Ralph Nader, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona and others.
Peaceable Kingdom
A riveting story of transformation and healing, PEACEABLE KINGDOM: THE JOURNEY HOME explores the awakening conscience of several people who grew up in traditional farming culture and who have now come to question the basic premises of their inherited way of life. Presented through a woven tapestry of memories, music, and breathtaking accounts of life-altering moments, the film provides insight into the farmers’ sometimes amazing connections with the animals under their care, while also making clear the complex web of social, psychological and economic forces that have led them to their present dilemma.
Processed People
Processed People features in-depth discussions with leading health experts detailing why so many of us are sick, and offers proven solutions to our current devastating health crisis. Tragically, many Americans are victims of a “health care” system and way of life which are devastating to our overall well-being. To those running our system, the bottom line on the dollars we’re able to spend is more important than the bottom line on our health. We’re caught in a perpetual grinding machine, unable to escape. It’s nearly impossible to be liberated when there’s so much confusing, conflicting information, and when the “authorities” giving you advice — be they the government or industry-controlled organizations like the American Dietetic Association — don’t necessarily have your best interests at heart. Processed People introduces you to real life people who have rid themselves of diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and Multiple Sclerosis, just through changing their diet. They literally threw away their drugs, shed pounds, and got their lives back.
A River Of Waste
A RIVER OF WASTE uncovers the ugly truth about factory farms in the U.S. -their flagrant disregard for human health and safety, reckless destruction of the environment, unconscionable treatment of animals.
Supersize Me!
Several legal suits have been brought against MacDonald’s Restaurants that they are knowingly selling food that is unhealthy. Some of the court decisions have stated that the plaintiffs would have a claim if they could prove that eating the food every day for every meal is dangerous. As such, documentarian Morgan Spurlock conducts an unscientific experiment using himself as the guinea pig: eat only MacDonald’s for thirty days, three meals a day. If he is asked by the clerk if he would like the meal super sized, he has to say yes. And by the end of the thirty days, he will have had to have eaten every single menu item at least once. Before starting the experiment, he is tested by three doctors – a general practitioner, a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist – who pronounce his general health to be outstanding. They will also monitor him over the thirty days to ensure that he is not placing his health into irreparable damage. he film documents this lifestyle’s drastic effects on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.
Tapped
This documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water. From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring film trails features those caught at the intersection of big business and the public’s right to water.
Veducated
Part sociological experiment and part adventure comedy, ‘Vegucated’ is an award-winning documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers from different backgrounds who, for six weeks, adopt a vegan diet and a whole new way of thinking about food. It showcases the evolution of three people who ultimately discover their own paths in creating a kinder, cleaner, greener world, one bite at a time.
The Witness
In the award-winning documentary THE WITNESS, Eddie Lama explains how he feared and avoided animals for most of his life, until the love of a kitten opened his heart, inspiring him to rescue abandoned animals and bring his message of compassion to the streets of New York. With humor and sincerity, Eddie tells the story of his remarkable change in consciousness.
You can also find many more free videos include kids videos, ads & commercials, art & animation, animals living free and environment & sustainability at vegvids.com.