21 Sustainable Fashion Films and Documentaries To Watch Over The Holidays
Films are powerful mediums that help educate us about important issues and inspire us to make a difference. So, if you want to spend your holidays finding out how you can make an impact check out these shocking, motivating and inspiring documentaries on ethical fashion and the problem with fast fashion.
1. THE TRUE COST (2015)
The True cost brings to light some of the shocking facts about the social impact of the fashion industry and how our demand for cheap, disposable fashion is destroying the planet and lives. Delving into the details of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, where 1134 garment workers lost their lives, it asks the question, ‘who really pays the price for our clothes?’. Shocking but brilliant, this documentary was and still is a game changer for highlighting the issues surrounding fast fashion, overconsumption and global capitalism.
2.RIVERBLUE (2017)
Riverblue is an award-winning and groundbreaking documentary that follows conservationist Mark Angelo as he uncovers the impact the fashion industry is having on our waterways. The film examines the impact of water pollution on our natural ecosystems and the harm it causes to garment workers who are in close contact with the dyes and synthetic materials used by the fashion industry and highlights why we need to move towards more sustainable practices.
3. SLOWING DOWN FAST FASHION (2016)
Slowing Down Fast Fashion is a documentary presented by Alex James, best known as the bassist from Blur. The film takes a deeper look into the repercussions of fast fashion and how our disposable approach to fashion is coming at a huge cost to the planet and to the people involved in the supply chain. Along with highlighting the issues surrounding the fashion industry, this documentary also explores the ways in which we can start to slow it down.
4. MADE IN BANGLADESH (2019)
This film by Rubaiyat Hossain follows the journey of 23-year-old Shimu, a garment worker from Dhaka, Bangladesh. After crossing paths with a labour union advocate who teaches Shimu about worker's rights. Against all odds, Shimu embarks on a journey to unionise the women she works with, overcoming resistance from those in power along the way. While this is not a documentary, it is closely based on real-life events, providing us with a provocative and insightful story about exploitation and empowerment.
5. LUXURY: BEHIND THE MIRROR OF HIGH-END FASHION (2019)
This documentary from Deutsche Welle investigates the hidden side of the luxury fashion industry. Despite their price tags, luxury fashion brands such as Gucci, Max Mara, Louis Vuitton, and Prada are not any more sustainable. For many luxury brands, behind the glitz and glamour is an industry that is full of exploitation of our planet, the workers who make the clothes and the animals who become the clothes.
6. COTTON ROAD (2014)
One of the most common raw materials used to produce clothing is cotton. But how many of us know the journey, it takes to become the new pair of jeans in your local store. Cotton Road follows the journey from when the seeds are sown on a South Carolina farm to the Chinese Factories where they are turned into garments and all the other stops along the global supply chain. It showcases how the supply chain of cotton travels across countries and continents in order to maximise profits and, in turn, exploiting people and the planet at every level.
7. SLAY - (2022)
From the makers of award-winning films Cowspiracy and What The Health, SLAY is a documentary that poses the question, ‘Is it acceptable to kill animals for fashion?’. The documentary follows filmmaker Rebecca Cappelli’s journey as she looks at the environmental and human impacts that come as a result of our demand for animal-based products, such as animal cruelty, greenwashing, mislabelling and cover-ups. SLAY provides an eye-opening investigation into some of the world's largest brands before looking at viable, sustainable alternatives.
8. UNRAVEL (2012)
Unravel follows the journey of discarded clothes from the Western world as they journey across the sea to a sleepy little town in India, Panipat. Panipat is home to garment recyclers who unravel huge bales of clothes, recycle them and turn them back into yarn. Unravel also gives us insight into what the workers of the recycling facility imagine the countries and the people who discard these clothes are like.
9. UDITA (2016)
UDITA is a documentary that, for five years, follows the lives and the struggle of the Bangladeshi garment workers. It began in 2010 when organising in the workplace led to harsh punishments such as beatings, through to the Tazreen and the Rana Plaza disasters. UDITA is a powerful film that shares the story of the resilient Bangladeshi women who were at the forefront of this struggle and fighting for their rights.
10. THE UGLY TRUTH OF FAST FASHION (2019)
Fast fashion giants like H&M and Zara have built a business model that churns out cheap, disposable clothing every day, filling over consumption at an unattainable rate. In this short documentary, Hasan Minhaj explores how our desire always to have something new is slowly killing our planet.
11. CLOTHES TO DIE FOR (2014)
BBC documentary Clothes to Die For examines the infamous Rana Plaza incident. The film revolves around the collapse of the eight-storied building, a tragedy that left about 2400 people injured and over 1100 losing their lives. The story focuses on capitalism, greed and corruption, examining how the fashion industry gives little care for their employees, only the bottom line. The documentary also speaks to the survivors visiting their new factory, one that makes sure the workers are in proper working conditions and shares the profits with them.
12. CHINA BLUE (2005)
China Blue is a documentary film that follows the life of a teenager who works in a clothing factory in China producing blue jeans. China Blue draws attention to the sweatshop working conditions and the unethical practices that take place as a result of our desire for cheap clothing. It talks about the poor working conditions, highlighting the unfair wages paid for strenuous work. An ugly truth so many want to keep covered, the documentary was made without permission from the Chinese Government in 2005
13. THE CLOTHES WE WEAR (2020)
The Clothes We Wear is a short sustainable fashion documentary that highlights the impact of overconsumption on our planet. Filmed in Germany, the documentary demonstrates how the clothes we buy are linked to negative and social impacts that we might not be aware of. It also calls out the greenwashing of well-known brands for using sustainability as a marketing ploy. Showing that now that fashion retailers see sustainability as something that sells, they’ve decided to market themselves as eco-friendly without actually changing their habits. The Clothes We Wear hammers home an important message that overproduction and overconsumption will never be sustainable.
14. FASHIONSCAPES (2021)
Fashionscapes is a docu series produced by Andrew Morgan (director of The True Cost) and Eco-Age founder and creative director Livia Firth. It is a five-part series that takes an investigative look at fashion’s global supply chains, showing that there is no such thing as cheap fashion, someone always pays the price. The documentary looks at the wool production in Tasmania, the role of Mayan women artisans in Guatemala, and the diamond supply chain in Botswana. Before speaking to activists and changemakers about what it would actually take to create a circular economy.
16. REDRESS THE FUTURE (2021)
Redress The Future is a three-part docu-series where climate activist Mikaela Loach explores innovative, inclusive, practical solutions that will help hold the fashion industry accountable. While the docu-series highlights the issues, it is a more solution-based storyline, looking at designers such as Phoebe English, Christopher Raeburn, and Orsola De Castro, who are putting tangible actions into practice. Redress The Future is an inspiring documentary that showcases the changemakers who are challenging the status quo to create a more sustainable future.
17. REMAKE’S MADE IN SERIES (2016-2020)
Made in America | Made in Mexico | Made in Sri Lanka | Made in Cambodia | Made in Nepal | Made in Pakistan
Remake is a six-part docu-series produced by the NFO Remake that poses the question: Who made my clothes?
The docu-series take you on a journey to six different countries across the world, highlighting the stories of the garment workers and spotlighting the exploitation prevalent in each country. The series reminds us that fast fashion is a feminist issue by showing us the women who make our clothes.
18. The High Cost of Our Cheap Fashion(2016)
The High Cost of Our Cheap Fashion is a TedTalk by Maxine Bédat is, the co-founder and CEO of Zady, a fashion brand and founder of The Bootstrap Project, an NGO that works with entrepreneurs in the developing world. In her TedTalk, Bedat poses the question: do you know where your clothes come from? Highlighting the issues of the fashion industry before showing you how you can take back the power of your wardrobe and feel better in and about your clothes.
19. WHITE GOLD: THE TRUE COST OF COTTON (2011)
White Gold is an undercover film that tells the story of the true cost of cotton. The film exposes how each year, schools are closed by thousands of children as young as ten years old who are forced by the Uzbek government to work in cotton fields for months at a time. Uzbekistan in Central Asia is the world's third-largest exporter of cotton, with the state-controlled cotton industry making billions for the governing elite, but little of this goes towards the rest of the population. White Gold tells the story of exploitation, capitalism and slave labour.
20. Fashion's Crippling Impact On The Environment Is Only Getting Worse (HBO) (2018)
This short documentary from HBO looks at the issues of a fast fashion industry created by never-ending trends. It is a short 3-minute peek into the issues surrounding fashion from creation to consumption. As well as looking into the flaws of the fashion industry’s recycling programs, highlighting that as much of our clothing is from blended fabrics or synthetic materials, it is often more time and resource intensive to recycle them than to just produce new clothes.
21. ARAL. THE LOST SEA (2010)
This documentary follows one of the greatest environmental disasters in history, the drying up of the Aral Sea, which since 1954 has lost half of its original surface area, and its volume has decreased by a quarter. The reasoning behind the Aral Sea drying up? The demand for cotton. Between 1954 and 1960, the government of the former Soviet Union constructed a river that would take water from the Amu Darya River and, consequently, the Aral Sea to grow cotton for the region. Unfortunately, poor planning has resulted in repercussions for the environment, including turning nearby reservoirs and wetlands into deserts, making winters and summers harsher, with an increase in severe droughts. This shocking documentary highlights the devastating effect our demand for cotton has on the environment.
11th December 2022
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