Movies Similar to Greening the Desert

Flood in the Desert(2022)

Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

10.0

Aleph(2021)

Structured as a labyrinth-like game and inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, Aleph is a travelogue of experience, a dreamer's journey through the lives, experiences, stories and musings of protagonists spanning ten countries and five continents.

6.7

King Corn(2007)

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

6.3

The Ants and the Grasshopper(2021)

Anita Chitaya has a gift: she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and maybe she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home in Malawi from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate sceptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions that shape the USA: from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, and to the American exceptionalism that remains a part of the culture. It will take all her skill and experience to help Americans recognise, and free themselves from, a logic that is already destroying the Earth.

7.3

Dominion(2018)

Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.

8.4

Dirt! The Movie(2009)

A look at man's relationship with Dirt. Dirt has given us food, shelter, fuel, medicine, ceramics, flowers, cosmetics and color --everything needed for our survival. For most of the last ten thousand years we humans understood our intimate bond with dirt and the rest of nature. We took care of the soils that took care of us. But, over time, we lost that connection. We turned dirt into something "dirty." In doing so, we transform the skin of the earth into a hellish and dangerous landscape for all life on earth. A millennial shift in consciousness about the environment offers a beacon of hope - and practical solutions.

6.9

After Winter, Spring(2012)

Family farmers in southwest France practice an ancestral way of life under threat in a world increasingly dominated by large-scale industrial agriculture.

1.0

The Milk System(2017)

Milk is Big Business. Behind the innocent appearances of the white stuff lies a multi-billion euro industry, which perhaps isn't so innocent…

6.9

Element of Survival(2014)

Beyond the sprawl of the urban jungle, 150 race teams meet to do battle in the heart of the Mojave Desert in southern California. The format is "run what ya brung" Unlimited 4 Wheel Drive Racing, and the stakes are higher than ever. Only 20% of the teams that take the green flag will make it to the end, the remainder being left strewn across the desert floor in the wake of one of the hardest off road races on the planet, the King of the Hammers. Follow teams in 'Element of Survival' as they set out to conquer harsh desert at speeds in excess of 100mph, as well as some of the hardest rock crawling North America has to offer, all in an effort to be crowned "King" at the setting of the sun.

0.0

But Beautiful(2019)

In his new film, Erwin Wagenhofer is looking for the good and beautiful in this world.

7.7

A Life on the Farm(2023)

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

7.0

Six Inches of Soil(2024)

The inspiring story of British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, benefit our health and provide for local communities.

0.0

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness(1927)

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

6.8

Sleep Furiously(2008)

Set in a small farming community in mid Wales, a place where Koppel's parents - both refugees - found a home. This is a landscape and population that is changing rapidly as small scale agriculture is disappearing and the generation who inhabited a pre-mechanised world is dying out. Much influenced by his conversations with the writer Peter Handke, the film maker leads us on a poetic and profound journey into a world of endings and beginnings; a world of stuffed owls, sheep and fire.

5.7

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Desert Dreams(2013)

With neither narration nor people, DESERT DREAMS dispels the notion that deserts are uninspiring and "deserted." This cinematic experience will immerse you in an unexpected world filled with life and beauty year-round--in Dry Summer, Wet Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Four years in the making and created by a filmmaker intimately acquainted with the Sonoran Desert, this multi-media production showcases 182 species of plants and animals. The sound track combines natural sounds with a kaleidoscope of flute and percussion vignettes.

7.0

Harvesting Water the Permaculture Way(2007)

Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton designs and builds a dam and water harvesting system on a farm.

6.5

Introduction to Permaculture Design(2009)

Geoff Lawton takes you into the world of Permaculture and explains the basic concepts for beginners.

6.5

Food and Country(2024)

America's policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country's broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.

0.0

Nostalgia for the Light(2010)

In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.

7.4

The American Dreamer(1971)

A documentary about actor/director Dennis Hopper, showing him at his home and studio putting together his film "The Last Movie."

5.6