Watch and Learn: The Best Movies to Stream While in Self-Isolation

So you’ve recently found yourself with a little extra time at home on your hands and you want to put your self-isolation to good use? Thankfully, streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube offer an abundance of life-changing content that will help get us all through the next few weeks of social distancing. Here are our top picks:

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Seaspiracy

Seaspiracy, a documentary by directors Ali and Lucy Tabrizi, exposes the commercial fishing industry’s harmful practices and highlights the pressing need to protect marine animals and world’s oceans. The film comes from producer Kip Anderson, who was also behind Cowspiracy and What the Health.

While making the film, the team discovered the vast scale of destruction that the global fishing industry is responsible for, and the shocking way that governments and environmental groups have profited off of it. Watch Seaspiracy on Netflix to find out what one thing we can all do to save our oceans and the animals who call them home.

Pandemic

Netflix’s new series about humanity’s past and future of illnesses is eerily timed. While likely not intentionally a pro-vegan film, Pandemic documents the consequences of factory farming 50 billion animals a year for slaughter – and frankly, it’s terrifying.

The Animal People

Joaquin Phoenix, PETA’s 2019 Person of the Year, served as executive producer for The Animal People, which tells the story of six animal activists who were targeted by the FBI for exposing one of the world’s largest animal-testing labs.

The Game Changers

This flick brought to you by James Cameron and Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove, busts the world’s biggest myth about eating meat. Former Ultimate Fighting Championship winner and military combat instructor James Wilks embarks on a “quest for the truth” that puts him in touch with top athletes and experts around the world, who reveal that the best way to excel in sports and life in general is by eating plant-based foods. This eye-opening documentary is available on Netflix.

Dominion

This Australian documentary – narrated by Sia, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Kat Von D, and Sadie Sink – takes a deep dive into every facet of animal exploitation. This film really should be mandatory viewing for all Australians. It’s available to watch for free online at WatchDominion.com. You can also join us in asking for it to become available on Netflix.

Cowspiracy

These days, it’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t claim to care about the future of our planet. Sadly, despite increased awareness, the conversation about environmentalism often abruptly stops when people sit down for a meal. Cowspiracy shows why that absolutely shouldn’t be the case. You can watch this stimulating documentary on Netflix.

What The Health

Promoted as “the health film that health organizations don’t want you to see”, What the Health explores the troubling relationships among animal agriculture, big pharma, and government. It exposes the consequences of consuming meat, eggs, and dairy and makes you wonder, Why isn’t this common knowledge? Check it out on Netflix.

Forks Over Knives

This documentary compares the Western diet with those of countries that have lower rates of cancer and heart disease. It challenges authorities who seem to be deliberately ignoring the link between meat, egg, and dairy consumption and disease in order to maintain the status quo, and it touts the many health benefits of vegan eating. Forks Over Knives is available on Netflix.

Blackfish

This documentary goes behind the scenes at SeaWorld in the US to expose how captivity affects marine mammals. It offers powerful evidence from both undercover footage and the testimony of former employees who chose to speak out against animal abuse. And if you think Sea World in Australia is any different, guess again.

The film urges us to consider our relationship with nature and to think critically about the way our choices affect other animals – and it reminds us that we must do better.

Blackfish is available on Netflix.

Tyke Elephant Outlaw

It was more than 25 years ago that an elephant named Tyke – who could no longer take the abuse that she experienced in the circus – crushed her trainer and escaped from an arena in Hawaii. This riveting documentary, available through Netflix, tells her story.

Okja

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a deranged zookeeper in Okja, which is being called the world’s first vegan action movie. It’s available on Netflix.

Also, check out VeganFlix Studios, a website that curates animal justice and vegan videos.

The meat, fishing, egg, and dairy industries are a nightmare for animals, who are treated like a collection of body parts rather than sentient individuals. Their misery will continue – unless we take action.

If you want to live a more compassionate life, please stop eating animals. Take the vegan pledge and share this list of movies with your friends:

Take the Vegan Pledge!