Movies Similar to Map Skills: Recognizing Physical Features

A Meeting with Milton Santos(2006)

The film deals with the process of globalization based on the thought of geographer Milton Santos, who through his ideas and practices, inspires the debate about Brazilian society and the construction of a new world. Santos discusses his views on the importance of respecting difference and his belief that an alternative globalisation model could wholly enfranchise all citizens of the world. An illustrious presence in 20th century social sciences, the man dubbed as ‘geography’s philosopher’ eloquently elucidates a developing world perspective on the global age.

The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey(2003)

Many geneticists and archaeologists have long surmised that human life began in Africa. Dr. Spencer Wells, one of a group of scientists studying the origin of human life, offers evidence and theories to support such a thesis in this PBS special. He claims that Africa was populated by only a few thousand people that some deserted their homeland in a conquest that has resulted in global domination.

Hatay(1939)

In the Valley of Neretva(1959)

It shows the Neretva river from its source to the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The document also captures the original four-hundred-year-old bridge in Mostar.

North America: Its Plains and Plateaus(1971)

This documentary shows the characteristics and location of major plains and plateaus of North America, and discusses some of the ways in which they have affected man's use of the land.

North America: Its Rivers(1971)

Explores the distinctive features of the major rivers of the continent, and discusses their contributions to the farming, recreation, transportation and hydroelectric power of North America.

North American Regions: The Rocky Mountains(1967)

Presents a geographic overview of the Rocky Mountain region. Discusses the significant role that this region of natural resources has played in the development of the continent

Les Lumières de Vallot(2025)

Joseph Vallot, geographer, naturalist and mountaineer born in 1854 in Lodève, was a visionary man, full of humor and whose curiosity was insatiable. He had spent some forty years of his life studying the Mont Blanc massif, sacrificing a good part of his fortune to this multifaceted passion. He was notably the first to demonstrate that one could sleep, work and even do science at an altitude of over 4000 meters, at a time when ascents to the summit of Western Europe were still adventurous expeditions. This documentary tribute follows in his footsteps, via the route taken at the time, on foot from Chamonix via the Grands Mulets refuge to the summit of Mont Blanc to the Joseph Vallot observatory nestled at an altitude of 4400m, with a team of guides, journalists and scientists.

Bancoco(2023)

A New Yorker journeys to the jungle in the Darien Gap of Panama to reconnect with an indigenous tribe he met and photographed 20 years ago. Their reunion highlights the profound power of photos and the human connection that transcends cultural barriers.

Our Round Earth: What It's Like(1971)

Views of the earth from the ground, from a plane and from a space ship show major features of the land, the oceans and the atmosphere.

The Earth: Coastlines(1970)

Uses animation, wave tank, live-action photography, and underwater models to show how waves develop, how coastlines are shaped, and to describe the forces that change the sea bottom.

Decolonising the Curatorial Process(2020)

Decolonising the Curatorial Process is a forty-minute documentary which explores decolonial strategies in an academic and curatorial context. The film features academics, activists and practitioners, and contains case studies of institutions that are deploying critical, self-reflective forms of curatorial practice. The Museum of London Docklands exhibition on slavery and the sugar industry is examined as an example of how an institution can decolonise the curatorial process, utilise the work of artists in a museum context, and critically examine East London's imperial history. The Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, who are working with Maasai activists from Kenya and Tanzania on a project centred on repatriating the museum's collection of sacred Maasai artefacts, also features in the film.

Sherpa(2015)

In 2013, the world's media reported on a shocking mountain-high brawl as European climbers fled a mob of angry Sherpas. Director Jennifer Peedom and her team set out to uncover the cause of this altercation, intending to film the 2014 climbing season from the Sherpa's point-of-view. Instead, they captured Everest's greatest tragedy, when a huge block of ice crashed down onto the climbing route...

Three Gorges: The Biggest Dam in the World(1998)

Explores the plans for the construction of the monumental dam on China's Yangtze River, the structure that when completed in 2009 will become the Three Gorges Dam. It is slated to be 610 feet high, 1.3 miles across, creating a reservoir 400 miles and the largest power plant in the world.

The Lost Forest(2020)

How would natural habitats develop without human interference? In this documentary we follow an international team of scientists and explorers on an extraordinary mission in Mozambique to reach a forest that no human has set foot in. The team aims to collect data from the forest to help our understanding of how climate change is affecting our planet. But the forest sits atop a mountain, and to reach it, the team must first climb a sheer 100m wall of rock.

Maps Add Meaning to History(1970)

The Gold Rush, Phoenicia as a sea power, political change in Africa, and the Panama Canal are some of the topics considered in showing how different kinds of maps can be used to gain insights into events and patterns of history.

Geography of South America: The Continent (Revised)(1977)

Discusses the main geographical features of South America including the Andes, the Guiana and Brazilian highlands, and the Orinoco, Amazon and Plata-Parana river basins. Show the relationship of these geographic factors to the people and their ways of life.

Milton Santos, Pensador do Brasil(2001)

The interview, held on January 4, 2001, was the last given by Professor Milton Santos, who died from cancer on June 24 of the same year. The geographer is gone, but his thoughts remains. Its political and cultural ideals inspire the debate on Brazilian society and the construction of a new world. His statement is a true testimony, a lesson that the world can be better. Based on geography, Milton Santos performs a reading of the contemporary world that reveals the different faces of the phenomenon of globalization. It is in the evidence of contradictions and paradoxes that constitute everyday life that Milton Santos sees the possibilities of building another reality. He innovates when, instead of standing against globalization, proposes and points out ways for another globalization.

Map Skills: Using Different Maps Together(1960)

Through animation, maps of the same scale and projection are combined to show relationships between natural features of the earth, human use, and social and political features. Projects different kinds of animated maps of the same scale and explains how the maps are used in gaining an understanding of the relationships between the social, political, and natural features of the earth.

Once ... Agadir(1971)

This short-length documentary takes us to Agadir, a city in Morocco that was struck by an earthquake in 1960. The film, made by an expatriate Moroccan who lost family and friends in the disaster, is a memorial to that tragedy and to the past he left behind when he came to North America. Partly allegorical, it employs varying techniques to offset reality from fantasy sequences.