Favorite Documentaries

Summer is a great time for movies. Most TV shows are in summer hiatus, so after Penny goes to bed, Josh and I often find ourselves perusing our Netflix instant queue. Most fiction movies we've seen lately are just plain stupid. (Does the word fiction apply to movies? Is there a film equivalent for the word fiction? Hmm.) Anyway, what is up with all the crappy cinema out there? Consequently, in the last few years, we have developed a serious love for documentaries. There are so many things wrong with our planet, our culture, our government, etc, and there seems to be a documentary for everything that ails us. I love watching something that makes me think about a topic in a new way and incites me to make changes in my life. Here are a few that you simply must see. They are all available to watch instantly on Netflix, or you can rent them through Amazon. There is a heavy environmental slant here, as that's what interests me most.

1. The Business of Being Born. This one is about giving birth in America. Before I watched this film, I figured I would have an epidural like everyone else, but this film was what first made me think that I might want a different experience.
2. Bag It. This documentary focuses on plastic: its impact on our health and our environment.
3. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. This one tells the story of an incredibly unhealthy man who completely reverses all of his health problems and gets to a healthy weight in 60 days just with nutrition.
4. The Vanishing of the Bees. This film is about the impact of pesticides and monoculture farming on the health of bees.
5. Food, Inc. Incredibly eye-opening look at our food systems in the US. The filmmakers show the horrific conditions of factory farming.
6. Sicko. Michael Moore takes on healthcare. I love Michael Moore and find him hilarious. This is my favorite of his films. Although quite depressing, it is interesting to see what a ridiculously inefficient system we have, especially when compared to countries with socialized healthycare.
7. Food Matters. This film focuses on the link between nutrition and disease. It is critical of western medicine's focus on surgery and while ignoring the impact that vitamins and nutrition can have on health.
8. No Impact Man. Tells the story of a family of three in New York City who sets out to have no ecological footprint for a year.
9. An Inconvenient Truth. This is such an environmental trademark at this point–I'd be surprised to find someone who hasn't seen it, but it's about global warming and the irreversible effects of greenhouse gases on climate change.
10. The Cove. This documentary tells the horribly sad story of dolphin slaughter in Japan.
11. Flow. This one talks about the world water crisis. You'd never know about the water crisis by seeing all of the sprinklers on while walking through suburban America, but it is a serious problem worldwide.

Have you seen any of these? Did I leave out any favorites of yours?