Can you imagine residing in a small hanging tent on the side of a cliff-face for two weeks straight? Well, you’ll be able to soon! Even if you don’t consider yourself a big outdoors-ey person, odds are that there is only so much you can take of your usual routine; even our favorite TV shows become too much, and we need to take a step back from those never-ending intertwining storylines of him, her, their brother, and his cousin. Documentaries can serve as the perfect entertainment palate-cleanser.
Lucky for you, Netflix has an abundance of wonderful documentaries available right now, films that will take you out of your room and into the dazzling outer world of nature. From the personal lives of birds, to the explorations of scientists, to the climber dangling from a rock, the world is your oyster.
Wild Alaska
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Wild Alaska is a three-season series, literally—the three seasons of the series cover winter, summer, and spring, allowing the viewer to better grasp the full spectrum of the atmospheric conditions of Alaska and the impact this has on its resident species. Alaska is a harrowing place most commonly associated with the harshness of its cold weather and wide, sparse landscapes.
The state is certainly better known for the animals who live there than its human residents. The series follows the lives of the animals living in Alaska throughout its shifting seasons, all with stunning cinematography that makes for a sense of simplicity and clarity.
Fish People
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This is a unique film that centers around the relationship between humans and the sea, specifically focusing on particular cases of people and what the sea means to them. The sea here does not serve as something that is metaphorical; these are not tales of the sea as a symbol for the artist—although such a thing can be traced throughout the history of art. This film focuses, rather, on physicality and visceral relationship between body and water and the substantial and meaningful role the sea can take in a person’s life.
Terra
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Terra is a film that discusses the contemporary relationship between humans and natural wildlife, specifically in relation to the current human dependency on meat. The film uses striking imagery to explore the living situations of much of modern-day wildlife and the human impact on these animals.
It also reveals details concerning animals kept in human captivity for the purpose of consumption. It is ultimately a hopeful film that aims to look at how we do things now and to consider how we might do things better.
Dancing With The Birds
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Dancing With The Birds extends a privileged insight into the rituals and habits of numerous species of birds, most of which you have probably never heard of, nor even imagined existed. Some of these creatures are nothing short of fantastical, seeming to come straight from the fantasy novels of your childhood. Who better to narrate it, therefore, than the wonderful Stephen Frye, a voice you may recognize from his wholesome voicings of the Harry Potter audiobooks!
Lorena: Light Footed Woman
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Lorena Ramírez is a Rarámuri woman known for her astounding long-distance running abilities. What makes Lorena so different from other runners is that her running practices are completely non-conventional in comparison with any other runner you would see competing in a race—or just with any runner or jogger going down a road or trail in the western world, period.
Lorena is from a community referred to as the “light-footed” people, as almost everyone from her community is an exceptional long-distance runner. Her people wear their normal daily clothes and shoes when running, and, in Lorena’s case, usually a long skirt or dress and rubber sandals. This film follows Lorena, who, in a culture of amazing runners, still stands out from the rest.
Chasing Coral
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Underwater eco-systems rely on the steady functioning of the age-old food chain, just as eco-systems on dry land do. When one part of this system is compromised, the entire chain is thrown out of whack.
For some time now, coral reefs have been suffering. Coral reefs are home to many under-water species. They are alive, they house many species which rely on them for safety from predators, and they, in turn, ensure that such species continue to exist for predators to pursue and nourish themselves. The crisis of coral puts the rest of the underwater world in danger, and eventually impacts those above ground. Chasing Coral investigates why this is happening.
Mountain
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Rock climbing has become increasingly well-known if not common-place. People flock to indoor climbing gyms all over the world, and it isn’t uncommon to hear of friends heading out to a national park to scale a cliff as their recreational weekend activity of choice—but it wasn’t always this way. The human fascination with mounting great heights is relatively recent. We are inspired by the immense heights of the earth’s natural landscape, we are thrilled by the prospect of making it to the top. Why, you may ask? Mountain seeks to answer this question.
Blue Planet
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Blue Planet is a critically acclaimed docu-series narrated by the comfortingly familiar voice of Sir David Attenborough. The series is interested in the fact that a whopping two-thirds of the world is made up of water, and that, despite this fact, humans know relatively little about what exists beneath the surface.
Netflix currently has both series of Blue Planet, setting you up for the perfect extended exploration of the deep blue of our planet and the mysteries living there. Like most nature documentaries, it is thrilling, heartbreaking, and beautiful, and it’s definitely worth the watch.
Jane
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This documentary features recently rediscovered footage of Jane Goodall. Now known as one of the foremost primatologists in the field, Goodall began as a secretary with no field experience nor any experience with science at all. What she did have was a devoted passion for animals, and her employer saw this. Jane was selected to travel to Gombe, Tanzania, to observe Chimpanzees in their natural habitat.
Jane’s intuition and fresh perspective allowed her to become intimate with the local Chimpanzee community, causing her to be the first person to supply in-depth insights on Chimpanzee life and setting off her life-long career which would influence primatology forever. This film offers footage from those beautiful first days in Gombe.
The Dawn Wall
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If you’ve seen the more well-known Free Solo, you’re familiar with the infamous El Capitan, one of the world’s tallest monoliths and the object of many a climber’s obsession. The Dawn Wall features the same general rock formation, but the similarities between the films pretty much end there.
The Dawn Wall is charged with hope and resilience and comradeship. It follows the life narrative of Tommy Caldwell, a climber who, admittedly, is definitely driven by an obsession to some extent, but there is also a pureness and love in his relationship to El Capitan, particularly in his insistence on surmounting it with a partner. So much of the time rock climbing is associated with a cutting-off from humanity, but, with The Dawn Wall, you will walk away feeling more connected with humans and nature alike.