Paul Gautschi has been a gardener for 55 years. After years of working hard in his garden with little to show for it, he came across a new gardening method. By adding wood chips on top of the soil he uses less water, needs to work less, has less problems with weeds, gets better produce and is more connected to God.

“Back to Eden” is more a how-to film than a dramatic story – even so it remains interesting for its entire 1 hour and 43 minutes. It’s not a historical documentary, it doesn’t have a clear dramatic narrative and it doesn’t manipulate in any way that we are used to from modern documentaries. Although there is a clear religious theme in the documentary, it steers completely clear of confrontation (and does nothing whatsoever to upset atheist viewers such as myself).

Several factors make this improbable film work. Paul is an unusually genuine person, humble and very human. He is deeply religious, but never holier-than-thou. His on-screen presence is captivating and his life’s work becomes a living testament to the gardening method he is presenting. Secondly, the editing of the film is very calm, gives subjects the time to explain themselves and uses visual examples effectively to illustrate. This is subtle and done very well – something nearly all documentaries mess up. Thirdly, the film touches upon some deeper themes that are becoming increasingly important. A gardening method that promises a great reduction in water use, less toil, less fertilizer, better-tasting produce says a lot about industrialized farming. “Back to Eden” does touch upon the ecological problems we are facing, but it never takes center-stage. I personally like when documentary stories touch upon greater themes, but leaving in the background (for example how “Man on Wire” centers around the Twin Towers, but never mentions 9/11).

That being said, if you have zero interest in gardening, you’ll probably have zero interest in this film. This is it’s major weak point. Great documentaries can make stamp collecting seem interesting to those who couldn’t care less about such subjects. However, if you have ever had a dream of growing your own vegetables and being self-sufficient, you will be inspired by this film. I’m already itching to find a local supplier of wood chips.

The entire film is available for free at the official site.

“Official site”:http://www.backtoeden.com / 103 minutes
Directed by: Dana Richardson & Sarah Zentz

You may also like:
- “Food = Waste”
- “Food, Inc.”
- “No Impact Man”

Through 6 separate stories we get an international view on the effects of Global Warming and how we humans keep tripping ourselves over whenever a little glimmer of hope was visible.

I think it’s fair to say that this film has a clear objective: create awareness and inspire action (same as many other films). For me it didn’t succeed. It’s very difficult mixing documentary and fiction – I’ve only seen it work a few times (“Touching the Void” being most successful). Starting with something which is clearly fictitious and then moving on to reality creates a certain doubt in the back of the viewer’s mind: Is this fiction? I’d never heard of Jehangir Wadia and kept getting the feeling that he wasn’t for real. One second he has the best intentions for the poor, the next he fires people left and right. The African girl talks about wanting to be a great doctor, then mentions it’s a way for her to be famous. The New Orleans resident talks about how stupid it is to burn oil, then next we see him riding his Harley. This is obviously done consciously and while it is an effective at showing the duality of man, it also left me more depressed than inspired.

On the plus side there are important things to say. The film was crowd-funded, made with passion, has great editing and soundtrack and tries to do something original. Oh, the animation is just amazing.

(view the making of the film)

IMDB: 6.8/10 (1382 votes) / Rotten Tomatoes: 79% (14 reviews) / Wikipedia page / “Official site”:http://www.spannerfilms.net/films/ageofstupid / 92 minutes
Directed by: Franny Armstrong

You may also like:
- “Food = Waste”
- “Collapse”
- “Food, Inc.”

Colin Beavan decided to live one year without having any negative impact on the environment. What does that mean? It means only buying local, not using anything disposable (including diapers, plastic containers and toilet paper!), not taking the elevator, only using public transportation, not using electricity and not producing any waste. All in a small New York apartment.

Can he do it? Yes. And it’s an incredible feat.

As a movie, film-makers Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein got two special presents: Colin’s wife and daughter. His wife is incredibly well-spoken, she manages to pin-point the situation again and again, articulate and with humor, while conversations with their daughter are used tastefully, intelligently and charmingly as a narrative vehicle. Very well done.

Even so the movie falls short. In the end Colin questions the value of the project and it becomes apparent that, like a poorly set up experiment, the “No Impact Man” project doesn’t prove anything. Well, anything except that everyone involved have their hearts in the right place and deserve much credit for completing a very ambitious project.

IMDB: 6.6/10 (352 votes) / Rotten Tomatoes: 88% (40 reviews) / Official site / 93 minutes
Directed by: Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein

You may also like:
- “Food = Waste”
- “Collapse”
- “Food, Inc.”

Daniel Tammet is a young man with “high-functioning autistic savant syndrome”. In other words, he’s smart as hell. We follow him to the States where scientists get baffled at his extraordinary mental abilities. For example, he has a stop-over in Iceland where he learns the language in a week, he does calculations to 100 decimal places and remembers pi to 22,500 digits. How? The numbers just come to him.

He spends an afternoon with Kim Peek (the inspiration for Rain Man). It’s a wonderful scene where Kim says to Daniel: “Some day you will be as great as I am”. Perfect!

On the form side this doc is very much in the British documentary style. Enjoy:

IMDB: (awaiting 5 votes) / 47 minutes
Directed by: Steve Gooder

You may also like:
- “Fermat’s Last Theorem” (1996)

The recent films we have been reviewing; “Collapse”, “The World According to Monstanto” and “Death of Suburbia” all deal with the end of the infinite growth paradigm. And while films such as “Food Inc.” shows some light at the end of the tunnel for food production, the Dutch film “Food = Waste” flips on a 10kw spotlight for industrial production.

Michael Braungart, a chemist, and William McDonough, an architect, have come up with a new method for production. Their philosophy is easy to understand: the waste of one cycle of production should feed the next cycle of production. Who couldn’t have thought of that? What makes this super-team different is that they got Ford, Nike and China (!) to listen to their ideas.

In the realm of save-the-plant documentaries, this is one of the most enlightened and inspiring you’ll find. Enjoy:

Official site (Dutch) / Icarus films
Directed by: Rob van Hattum

Monsanto, in case anybody was in doubt, is pretty far from winning the love of the people. Former producers of Agent Orange, they now produce pesticides and Genetically Modified seeds and growth hormones. They have a horrible record and seem to leave misery and poverty in their wake.

French investigative journalist Marie-Monique Robin pulls no punches as she digs deep into Monsanto’s past and present. The result is a well-researched film about a very scary company and industry. So far, so good. Unfortunately the film is also dull. A day after first viewing and I practically forgot what I saw even though it’s possibly one of the most important subjects of our time. Personally, I don’t believe that film is a good medium to teach, but it’s a fantastic medium to touch and “The World According to Monsanto” focuses so much on being credible that it forgets to move us emotionally. If you want to be touched, watch another Monsanto-critical film, “Food Inc.”. But if you’ve seen that already and want to dig deeper, this film’s for you.

IMDB: 7.9 (400 votes) / Rotten Tomatoes: 66% (3 reviews) / Greenpeace article
Directed by: Marie-Monique Robin

Just like “The End of Suburbia”, “Collapse” deals with global oil depletion. What happens when we run out of the black gold? (hint: it won’t be pretty!)

Director Chris Smith does so many things right with Collapse. It’s expertly structured and manages to swing the direction back and forth between “this guy is out of his mind!” to “my God, is he right?” (example: notice what happens when Ruppert is asked about human ingenuity). The doc is also precisely cut around the story of oil depletion, but slowly lets in glimpses of Michael Ruppert’s lonely character.

The subject matter is not easy to explain and not easy to understand, but Collapse does a fine job of presenting this complex subject. It’s hard not to think of “Fog of War” when watching “Collapse” – it has many of Errol Morris’ trademarks, even the music sounds very similar to that of Philip Glass. But upon a closer examination you discover a slew of new film techniques which will surely be copied by other documentary filmmakers further down the line. It’s not easy to capture Michael Ruppert’s intense expression – I’ve seen him looking dull in other interviews – but Chris Smith completes the task with flying colors.

“Collapse” managed to spark long and heated discussions amongst the people I viewed it with. Days later the discussion is still not over. How often does that happen?

IMDB: 8.0 (973 votes) / Rotten Tomatoes: 82% (22 reviews) / Wiki article / Official site
Directed by: Chris Smith

“Peak oil”, make a note of that term. It refers to the point when world oil production reaches its maximum. After that it’s downhill; downhill for putting gas on your car, downhill for fueling factories, downhill for suburbia, downhill for human society. “The End of Suburbia” manages to paint a convincing pictures of a not-so-far-future where society starts breaking down.

The format of the film is that of a “60 minutes” episode complete with presenter, repeated interviewee titles and scary synthesizer soundtrack. The core of the doc is the content and while I did find it a tad too “lefty” (constant criticisms of commercialism, k-mart, SUVs) and would have preferred it 30 mins shorter, it’s obviously made with heart.

IMDB: 7.5 (633 votes) / Amazon reviews / Official site
Directed by: Gregory Greene

Watch the film here:

Youtube: 5 out of 5 stars (1030 reviews) / 13 minutes

Fantastic short doc aimed at showing the breadth and depth of Getty’s Hulton Archive. The challenge for this director has been “how can you show photographs that don’t exist?” Watch the short below and witness the amazing solution to this challenge.

Youtube: 5 stars (137 reviews) / 7 minutes
Directed by: Laurie Hill