VITAL VIEWING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Iain Blackwell presents three crucially important documentaries you shouldn’t miss.

KISS THE GROUND

» Directors: Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell

Eloquently narrated by Woody Harrelson, a long-term vegan and environmentalist, the film succinctly shows how the modern-day farming practices of tilling the soil and applying pesticides are transforming healthy, biodiverse soil into barren earth which cannot sustain crop generation. We see how soil sequesters carbon, from the CO2 absorbed by the plants it supports, releasing oxygen back into the air, and how soil is composed of microbes, bacteria, and decaying matter which are critical to its capacity to transport the nutrients required by all plants to grow. Stripping the land of its native grasslands, meadows and forests and replacing them by vast tracts of single crops and cattle ranches has resulted in a fundamental loss of biodiversity. To make matters worse, bare soils release carbon back into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming in an ever-increasing vicious spiral. The makers present us with the startling statistic that within 60 years, the world’s topsoil will be gone, giving us only 60 more harvests. Although that is an extremely alarming claim, this documentary is compelling viewing as it conveys a message of hope, showing how we can readily reverse the situation, with a heartwarming demonstration of this having been achieved on a grand scale.

Vital Viewing because without soil health, humanity is a lost cause. This film advocates a way forward that promotes diversity involving healthy crops and animal rearing. Everyone should take the time to absorb its message.

THE SOCIAL DILEMMA

» Director: Jeff Orlowski

The Social Dilemma is an absorbing production that charts how Social Media providers take advantage of users via sophisticated algorithms which are monitoring our behaviour. It is filmed in a docu-drama style, with actors and different scenarios, to help convey its message that tech giants are targeting, manoeuvring and manipulating all of us resulting from our search patterns, responses, and the things we spend time viewing. If this is not bad enough for responsible adults who can presumably exercise some form of rationalisation, it is all the more concerning for younger age groups who notoriously spend the most time on these platforms, especially when the Silicon Valley engineers being interviewed in the film confess to being fearful about what is being perpetrated and, time after time, state that they would not allow their own children to have unchecked lengthy access to their devices. Not surprising, when we see the effects on the unfortunate victims in the stories being played out.

Vital Viewing as it portrays the dangers involved in altering the psychological makeup of users, creating fundamental problems. Although shocking and appalling throughout, it’s imperative that all of us, especially parents, are aware of what’s going on.

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET

» Directors: Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes » Narrated by: David Attenborough

In his 94 years, Sir David Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the diversity of the planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. But during his lifetime, he has also witnessed first-hand the monumental scale of humanity’s impact on nature. Here, in a stark warning to humanity, he convincingly conveys that our time on mother earth is fast running out if we continue to blunder along our current destructive path which is leading us towards a cataclysmic mass extinction. Directed by Alastair Fothergill and beautifully filmed as always, the documentary begins and ends with Attenborough at Chernobyl, while along the way, during his successive decades as a natural historian, we see the enduring impact our practices have incurred on our surroundings, with loss of habitats and species, contamination and erosion, all against the backdrop of everincreasing quantities of carbon in the atmosphere. Just when we reach the bleakest point with seemingly no hope for the future, Attenborough, in a gut-wrenching emotional scene, informs us that it’s not too late, if we act NOW! This is his message during the final half hour: that we have to halt the growth in the world’s population, to establish no-fishing zones, to drastically reduce meat consumption, to become aware of the seriousness of the situation and to act accordingly. It’s really about saving ourselves by saving the planet.

Vital Viewing if you care about our planet earth, about future generations and about animals and nature. Hats off to the indefatigable Sir David Attenborough for always being there to make us think and hopefully to react positively.