By Brianna Acuesta at trueactivist.com

From sustainability to the education system to protests against the Vietnam War, there’s a documentary here to interest everyone.

The idea of changing the world may seem vast and unattainable, but with the many ways people are achieving this on a daily basis it seems more and more doable as time goes on. With social media, it’s easier to find out about people making a difference in their community all around the world, and those people often inspire others to do the same, creating this beautiful ripple effect of positive change.

With the rise of documentaries being produced comes a rise in the awareness of all kinds of problems, from the ethics of the palm oil industry to the starvation of children in different parts of the world, and with it has come a new generation of people looking for a way to help.

If you are one of those people, you might be confused about where to start when it comes to learning about what’s going on and what needs to be done, but you need look no further. This article contains a comprehensive list of documentaries that are life-changers and will motivate you to get up and make a difference.

The best part is that all of the below films are free to watch online, unless otherwise stated. Just click on the title and it will direct you to the site where they can be viewed. Go forth and watch these films, then let us know in the comments what you thought of some of these titles.

The Economics of Happiness ($5)

Explores the world’s conflicting states: those who want to consolidate corporate power and advocate for globalization and those who want to de-regulate these old institutions of power.

Money & Life

This documentary asks a fundamental question: what if we saw the economic crisis not as a disaster, but as an opportunity?

The New Story for Humanity

Promotes learning from other cultures to create a new story for humanity going forward that relies on the interconnectedness of humans and the environment.

Schooling the World

Takes a look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last remaining indigenous cultures.

War Made Easy

Exposes a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has forced the U.S. into war over and over again.

The Corporation

Examines the nature, evolution, impacts and future of the modern business corporation and the increasing role it plays in society and our everyday lives.

HUMAN

Captures deeply personal and emotional accounts of topics that unite us all; struggles with poverty, war, homophobia, and the future of our planet mixed with moments of love and happiness.

Crossroads: Labor Pains of a New Worldview

The film reveals the inner workings of the human experience in the 21st century, urging viewers to step out of the box and challenge their own assumptions about who we really are, and why we do what we do.

Within Reach ($5)

One couple sold all of their belongings to “bike-pack” 6500 miles around the U.S. to explore 100 ecovillages, cohousing communities, co-op houses, communes, transition towns, and their own principles and commitment.

Dirt! The Movie

It tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and under-appreciated source of fertility–from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

United Natures: a United Nations of all Species

Explores the Rights of Mother Earth, Environmental Philosophy, Wisdom, Spirituality and the potential for a Neo-indigenous future for humanity.

Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas

This documentary is a journey, which takes us across the Americas, to attempt to answer one of the most important questions of our time: What is Democracy?

Mark Corske’s Engines of Domination

Offers a theory of political power as a tool for making tools of human beings — an engine that converts human energy into authority and privilege for the rulers.

The Choice Is Ours

Explores lots of aspects of our society to look at how we can actually become “civilized”

In Transition 2.0: A Story of Resilience & Hope in Extraordinary Times 

This film is an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things like printing their own money, growing food, and localizing their economies.

Occupy Love 

journey deep inside the global revolution of the heart that is erupting around the planet, showing that humanity is waking up and choosing love over power.

Earthlings 

Documents humanity’s absolute dependence on animals but illustrates the lack of respect humans show these “non-human providers.”

Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective ($5)

INHABIT explores the many environmental issues facing us today and examines solutions that are being applied using the ecological design lens of permaculture, which is the replication of designs found in nature.

PROPAGANDA

‘Propaganda’ mysteriously appeared on YouTube in 2012 and has since gone viral and undergone tons of speculation about its origins… It’s recommended that you just watch the film without reading too much about it first.

Real Estate 4 Ransom: Why Does Land Cost the Earth? 

Outlines a genuine alternative to the global property speculation that forced so many into debt.

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to a cut in oil imports and food.

Fall and Winter ($5)

This stunning film takes you on a hypnotic journey, reaching to the past to understand the origins of the catastrophic environmental transitions we now face.

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward 

A feature length documentary by Peter Joseph that presents the case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society.

The Crisis of Civilization

A dark comedy remix mash-up bonanza about the end of industrial civilization. featuring clowns, car crashes, explosions, super heroes, and xylophones and much, much more.

The Evolution of Ecological Consciousness 

Permaculture designer Andrew Faust gives us an inspiring and heady narrative about the evolution of all life and human consciousness on Mother Earth.

Plutocracy: Political Repression In The U.S.A. 

Plutocracy is the first documentary to comprehensively examine early American history through the lens of class.

The War You Don’t See

A powerful and timely investigation into the media’s role in war, tracing the history of embedded and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq.

Edible City: Grow the Revolution

Edible City tells the stories of the pioneers who are digging their hands into the dirt, working to transform their communities and do something truly revolutionary: grow local food systems that are socially just, environmentally sound, economically viable and resilient to climate change and market collapse.

Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy 

This film explores the historical role of the Democratic Party as the “graveyard of social movements”, the massive influence of corporate finance in elections, the absurd disparities of wealth in the United States, the continuity and escalation of neocon policies under Obama, the insufficiency of mere voting as a path to reform, and differing conceptions of democracy itself.

Peace, Propaganda And The Promised Land 

Provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Canary Effect: Kill the Indian, Save the Man

Delving deeply into the often misunderstood and frequently over looked historic realities of the American Indian, The Canary Effect follows the terrifying and horrific abuses instilled upon the Indigenous people of North America, and details the genocidal practices of the US government and its continuing affects on present day Indian country.

Disruption

The film enlarges the issue beyond climate impacts and makes a compelling call for bold action that is strong enough to tip the balance to build a clean energy future.

Inequality For All ($4)

A passionate argument on behalf of the middle class, INEQUALITY FOR ALL features Robert Reich—professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member—as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy.

2012: Time For Change

Presents an optimistic alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom.

First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological Architecture 

FIRST EARTH is a documentary about the movement towards a massive paradigm shift for shelter — building healthy houses in the old ways, out of the very earth itself, and living together like in the old days, by recreating villages.

For The Next 7 Generations

In 2004, thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers from all four corners, moved by their concern for our planet, came together at a historic gathering, where they decided to form an alliance: The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. This is their story.

Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class 

Based on the book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television’s beginnings to today’s sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.

Can We Do It Ourselves? 

“Can We Do It Ourselves?” asks if it is time to start pushing for a democratic, cooperative way of doing business, showing case studies of businesses who are surviving as democracies within our capitalist system.

A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity 

A feature-length documentary that follows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises.

Prout: Economic Democracy in Practice 

Economics of Prout covers the basic economic principles of Prout, which offers a viable alternative to the materialistic, anti human philosophies of Capitalism and Communism.

Affluenza

A groundbreaking film that diagnoses a serious social disease – caused by consumerism, commercialism and rampant materialism – that is having a devastating impact on our families, communities, and the environment.

The Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News 

Utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of “elite propaganda.”

Breaking The Taboo

Narrated by Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman, the film follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo over the United States led War on Drugs and expose what it calls the biggest failure of global policy in the last 40 years.

The Nature of Cities

Follows the journey of Professor Timothy Beatley as he explores urban projects around the world, representing the new green movement that hopes to move our urban environments beyond sustainability to a regenerative way of living.

The Take: Occupy, Resist, Produce

Takes a look at the dramatic economic collapse that occurred in Argentina and writes a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century.

Anima Mundi: Permaculture, Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Soul of the World 

Provides a realistic alternative for our future sustainability, a gentler way that treads lightly on our Mother Earth.

Legalize Democracy

A documentary film by Dennis Trainor, Jr. about a movement to amend the U.S. Constitution so that Corporations are not considered people, and money is not considered speech.

The Secret of Oz

Explores an economic solution to the debt crisis facing the U.S. by taking a look at the book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

The Yes Men Fix The World

A screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world’s most outrageous pranks.

Gasland 

When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination.

Not Business As Usual 

A provocative look at capitalism and its unintended price of success. The film tracks the changing landscape of business with the rising tide of conscious capitalism through the stories of local entrepreneurs who have found innovative ways to bring humanity back into business.

Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Politics

The film offers an in depth look at the influence of money in politics–analyzing social forces and events that the mainstream media and scholarship have largely distorted or kept hidden. It also analyzes the meaning of democracy.

DIVE! Living Off America’s Waste

The multi award-winning documentary DIVE! follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of Los Angeles’ supermarkets.

Unwasted: The Future Of Business On Earth

Presents the alluring ideal of zero waste as a key element of the sustainable business model.

Waste = Food 

The German chemist, Michael Braungart, and the American designer-architect William McDonough are fundamentally changing the way we produce and build. If waste would become food for the biosphere or the technosphere (all the technical products we make), produc­tion and consumption could become beneficial for the planet.

The Evilness of Power

Examines the ways in which power and hierarchy affect individuals, society, and the world at large. It’s possibly the best film on the subject ever made.

Enough Is Enough 

Lays out a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth-an economy where the goal is enough, not more.

END:CIV 

Examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations.

Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices

The film exposes Wal-Mart’s unscrupulous business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Walmart executives.

Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: The Public Relations Industry Unspun 

This video illuminates this hidden sphere of public relations in our culture and examines the way in which the management of “the public mind” has become central to how our democracy is controlled by political and economic elites.

Words From The Edge 

A film about the unprecedented transition that we are undergoing from a culture of industrial growth and inequality to what must inevitably be more localised, sustainable, living economies.

The Global Brain: Peter Russell

Explores the idea that the Earth is an integrated, self-regulating living organism and asks what function humanity might have for this planetary being.

Law Enforcement Opposed to the War on Drugs 

Cops and former cops who have put in decades fighting the war on drugs speak out against prohibition.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media 

Funny, provocative and surprisingly accessible, the film explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist.

Growing Change: A Journey Inside Venezuela’s Food Revolution 

Follows the filmmaker’s journey to understand why current food systems leave hundreds of millions of people in hunger.  It’s a journey to understand how the world will feed itself in the future in the face of major environmental challenges.

Capitalism Is The Crisis

This documentary explains the nature of capitalist crisis, visits the protests against austerity measures, and recommends revolutionary paths for the future.

Sir! No Sir! – The GI Movement to End the Vietnam War 

This feature-length documentary focuses on the efforts by troops in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to oppose the war effort by peaceful demonstration and subversion.

Breaking The Silence – Truth And Lies In The War On Terror 

A film with enormous emotional power, bringing us the human consequences of our military attacks on Middle East countries.

Zeitgeist: Addendum 

The film includes facts regarding the Federal Reserve System in the United States, the CIA, Corporate America and others, concluding the advocation of a libertarian movement called the Venus Project, created by social engineer Jacque Fresco.

The Soil Solution To Climate Change

What if that CO2 could be removed and stored in our carbon-hungry soil through land management practices? Find out how in The Soil Solution.

Singapore: Biophilic City 

While not a perfect story, there are few dense cities in the world today that can claim a better record of greening the city than Singapore.

Education For a Sustainable Future 

The documentary film critically analyses what is considered socially relevant in a new education system which brings out the most potential in all of humanity whilst also detailing specific educational methods from a wide range of sources on how to nurture social skills, critical thinking techniques and a larger variety of important practices to positively reinforce from our earliest years onwards.

The Superior Human?