These regenerative films will open your eyes to life itself

1) Fantastic Fungi

A visually hypnotic journey into the underground kingdom that sustains life on Earth, Fantastic Fungi celebrates the intelligence, cooperation and regenerative power of fungi. The film makes the case – scientifically and spiritually – that the future depends on learning from the mycelial networks beneath our feet. 

Watch the full film or check out the trailer. 

Also dive into our interview with documentary-maker and writer Merlin Sheldrake.

2) Train Dreams

Based on the novella of the same name, Train Dreams is the portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly changing America of the early 20th Century. A film from Clint Bentley that contains all the wondrous, devastating layers of an entire life.

Check the trailer on YouTube and watch the full film on Netflix.

3) MUGA: When She Stops Flowing, So Will We

Set in the Catalan Muga Valley, our very first We Are The ReGeneration-documentary explores how a river shapes the life, culture and identity of the people who depend on her. MUGA gently dissolves the illusion of separation, revealing a simple truth: when a river is allowed to flow freely, so can the communities that call her home.

Watch the full documentary on our film page.

4) Honeyland 

Following a lone wild beekeeper in the mountains of North Macedonia, Honeyland is a masterclass in ecological restraint. Its central lesson – take half, leave half – is a universal ethic of regeneration, captured through intimate cinematography and unique storytelling.

You can find the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Prime Video.

5) Kiss the Ground 

With sweeping visuals and voices from farmers, scientists and activists, Kiss the Ground shows how regenerative agriculture can restore climate, biodiversity and community resilience in one breath. It is equal parts hopeful manifesto and practical roadmap – an invitation to remember that healing the world starts by tending to the living skin of the Earth.

Watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Prime Video. As a school, you can watch it for free.

6) Farming While Black

Inspired by Leah Penniman’s ground-breaking work at Soul Fire Farm, Farming While Black exposes the deep-rooted inequalities in American agriculture while celebrating the ancestral knowledge that continues to nourish black farming communities. Through intimate storytelling, the film shows how land stewardship is not only a path to food sovereignty but a reclamation of dignity, culture and collective power.

Organise a screening through the website of Farming While Black.

7) Tomorrow 

Part travelogue, part blueprint for a liveable future, Tomorrow showcases regenerative solutions already flourishing across the world – from local food systems to democratic innovation. The film is grounded in optimism, reminding us that solutions exist everywhere when we choose collaboration over despair.

You can watch the trailer on YouTube and the full documentary on Prime Video.

8) Jane 

Drawing on rediscovered footage from the 1960s, Jane offers an intimate look at Jane Goodall’s early years in Gombe. It shows not only her scientific breakthroughs but her deep emotional and ethical connection to the chimpanzees who changed her life.

Dive into the trailer on YouTube and the full documentary on Disney+.

9) My Octopus Teacher

This intimate encounter between a filmmaker and a wild octopus in South Africa’s kelp forests became a global phenomenon for a reason. My Octopus Teacher is a gentle meditation on vulnerability and interspecies connection – an opportunity to rediscover kinship in unexpected places.

Watch the trailer on YouTube. The full film is available on Netflix.

10) The Salt of the Earth

This stunning portrait of photographer Sebastião Salgado explores how witnessing global suffering led him to an unexpected path: restoring devastated land into a thriving forest. The Salt of the Earth is a story of redemption – personal and ecological.

You can find the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Prime Video.

11) The Hidden Life of Trees

Based on Peter Wohlleben’s revelations about forest intelligence, this film takes viewers deep into the communicative, cooperative world of trees. It reframes forests as social, sentient communities – complex systems we are only beginning to understand. 

Dive into the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Prime Video.

12) I Am the River, the River Is Me 

This contemplative film follows Māori communities as they assert the legal personhood of the Whanganui River, one of the world’s first waterways recognised as a living being. I Am the River, the River Is Me shows what becomes possible when law, culture and ecology reconnect – when a river is no longer a resource but a relative.

Watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Apple TV.

13) Green Gold

In this powerful documentary, ecologist John D. Liu documents how degraded ecosystems –from China’s Loess Plateau to Rwanda – can recover astonishingly quickly when communities restore the conditions for life to thrive. Green Gold is a lesson in ecological hope: regeneration is not a theory but a proven path.

The full film is available on YouTube. Also read our interview with John D. Liu.

14) Máxima 

Centred on the extraordinary Peruvian land defender Máxima Acuña, this documentary exposes the high stakes of extractive mining and the quiet bravery of those who stand against it. Máxima reveals how one woman’s commitment to her mountains and water can galvanise global conversations about justice, sovereignty and the right to protect one’s home.

Find the full film on YouTube. 

15) Wild Life

Wild Life follows Kris Tompkins and her late husband Doug, as they devote their lives and fortunes to rewilding millions of hectares in South America. The film is a love letter to wildness – a story of grief, courage and relentless restoration – and a reminder that large-scale ecological healing is still possible when we act with conviction.

You can watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Disney+.

16) Seed: The Untold Story

As industrial agriculture narrows the genetic palette that sustains humanity, Seed reminds us that every seed holds a story – of culture, resilience and co-evolution – and that conserving them is an act of deep ecological responsibility.

Check out the full film via their website. Also read our interview with Vandana Shiva, who features prominently in the film. 

17) A Life on Our Planet

David Attenborough’s most personal documentary lays bare the scale of ecological loss while offering a vision for how we can still restore planetary health. A Life on Our Planet combines scientific clarity with emotional weight, urging us to act while repair is still within reach.

 Watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Netflix.

18) The Art of Flying

More poetry than documentary, The Art of Flying captures murmuration – those wild, shape-shifting flocks of starlings – in breath-taking motion. It’s a reminder that beauty, coordination and complexity often arise not from control but from the freedom of many individuals moving as one.

You can find the whole documentary on Vimeo.

19) Animals Are Beautiful People

This classic, often humorous documentary celebrates the quirks, intelligence and surprising behaviours of wildlife across Southern Africa. Though older in style, it remains a joyful reminder that the natural world is full of playfulness – and worth protecting simply for its wonder.

Watch the full film on YouTube.

20) Down to Earth 

A global pilgrimage to wisdom keepers and Indigenous communities, Down to Earth offers a quiet antidote to modern overwhelm. Through patient encounters and elemental landscapes, it reveals how ancient practices of reciprocity, ceremony and stewardship can illuminate new pathways for a regenerative future.

You can find the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Films for Action.

21) The Biggest Little Farm

This modern classic of ecological humility traces a couple’s journey to restore a depleted California farm into a thriving, biodiverse ecosystem. Through failures, storms and astonishing recoveries, The Biggest Little Farm reveals how life rebounds when humans step back, listen, and learn to cooperate with nature’s own intelligence.

Dive into the trailer on YouTube and the full film on Prime Video.

22) Home

Shot across 54 countries, Home is a sweeping visual essay on humanity’s relationship with the Earth. It reveals the fragility and grandeur of our planetary home, urging us to shift from extraction to stewardship before the balance tips beyond repair.

Watch the full film on YouTube.

Also worth a watch:

–   Created with and for the Huni Kuin people of the Amazon, Eskawata Kayawai is a luminous reminder that Indigenous cosmologies hold keys to planetary regeneration.

–   A testament to the power of collective action, In Our Hands follows communities and farmers who are transforming food systems from the ground up.

–   Set in Delhi’s polluted sky, All That Breathes is a powerful portrait of two brothers who rescue injured birds of prey while their city chokes.

–   Roots So Deep traces the science and practice of regenerative grazing through the lens of farmers willing to rethink long-held norms.

–   A sharp investigation into industrial food systems, Food, Inc. exposes the hidden costs of cheap calories – from soil degradation to worker exploitation.

–   Slower Steps invites us to slow down and see the living world with fresh eyes. It suggests that regeneration begins not with grand solutions, but with our ability to pay attention again. 

–   Told from the perspective of a dying dog looking back on a life of companionship, Denali is a tender portrait of love, loss and the human-animal bond.

–   Wild is less about wilderness itself and more about how nature can hold, break and rebuild us. A story of walking toward wholeness, one step at a time.

–   Narrated by David Attenborough, the Our Planet series pairs breathtaking visuals with an unflinching look at ecological collapse.

More of a listener? Dive into our article full of regenerative podcasts.