The Best Vegan Documentaries You Should Watch Now
If you’re considering going on a vegan diet for a month: high five! Make sure you read my Veganuary tips guide for a successful transition into the plant whole foods world, and my favorite vegan quotes for a little inspiration. If you’re considering taking this further than the month and adopting a vegan lifestyle for good: you really should, and watching the best vegan documentaries there are out there is one of the best ways to get to your ends.
Vegan and vegetarian documentaries were what made me decide to go vegan for sure. There are many vegan documentaries and movies on veganism on Netflix, which is convenient as most people are already on there, but you can find them elsewhere too, and a lot of them are for free.
Today I wanted to share with you some top vegan documentaries and movies on veganism to watch, no matter who you are and what your end goal is. It’s great to feel a little more educated after watching a movie, and documentaries are definitely my favorite movie genre. You can also read my post on the best yoga movies for more inspiration.
The Best Vegan Documentaries You Should Watch Now
Seaspiracy
Duration: 1h 29m
Cast: Ali Tabrizi, Richard O’Barry, Lucy Tabrizi
Year Released: 2021
Available on Netflix
The latest of movies on veganism making a stir and with reason, Seaspiracy is a must-watch for everyone, and especially for those of us who believe fishing is somewhat more ethical or a lesser evil than the meat industry. I won’t be spoiling the movie by telling you you are wrong, and young director Ali Tabrizi really shines on this personal and sobering watch. Think the laws around fair fishing and the “dolphin-safe tuna” label are properly regulated? Think again. Seaspiracy is definitely a must-watch for everyone.
Game Changers
Duration: 1h 25m
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lewis Hamilton, James Wilks, James Cameron, Jackie Chan, Novak Djokovic
Year Released: 2018
Available on Netflix
Another top vegan documentary Netflix option. Game Changers is one of the most recent documentaries about veganism on Netflix and is very much one for the bro-dudes. Beefcakes and Olympic athletes are going vegan worldwide to boost their stamina, and director and award-winning documentary filmmaker Louie Psihoyos follows them on their journey to optimal sports (and erectile) performance. Learn how switching to a plant-based diet can make you fast like Dotsie Bausch and strong like Morgan Mitchelle or Arnie. Game Changers follows an injured UFC fighter on his journey to fast-tracking his recovery. While researching nutrition as a healing tool, he travels around the world and encounters different people, mainly elite athletes who have switched to a plant-based diet to elevate their sports performance and stay away from heart disease. If you still believe that your body needs animal protein and dairy products to function properly and build muscle, watch the Game Changers Netflix vegan documentary film!
Cowspiracy
Duration: 1h 30m
Cast: Kip Andersen
Year Released: 2014
Available on Netflix
Another one from the small collection of vegan documentaries Netflix has on its platform that can help you educate yourselves about veganism and the environmental impact of animal agriculture. In this very case, Cowspirary explores the impact of the meat industry on the environment. Director Kip Andersen, initially upset by Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth decides to investigate what could be the most ecological thing he could do for the planet. On his quest of finding what produces the most greenhouse gases, he stumbles on a fair few hurdles, including the funding of this very documentary, which ended up being crowdfunded. Cowspirary explores how the animal agriculture industry impacts the world around us from climate change, dead ocean zones, to water shortages. A humorous and infuriating watch.
Earthlings
Duration: 1h 35m
Narrated by: Joaquin Phoenix
Year Released: 2005
Available on Vimeo
A lot of people might not know this, but Joaquin Phoenix has been a vegan for almost his entire life. In this vegan documentary, he shares his passion for veganism by being a narrator. The veganism documentary shows the gruesome realities of violence against animals. Some of the camera footage is too extreme that some people finish the documentary vegan! Yes, this may be hard to watch but it is important that we should make it until the end of the movie to be informed of how human brutality impacts every animal that lives here on earth. Gordon Ramsay himself once said that you should only be worthy of eating meat if you kill the animal yourself or at least be the witness of their execution. Watch Earthlings and decide if you still want to eat meat.
What the Health
Duration: 1h 32m
Year Released: 2017
Available on Netflix
From the filmmakers of Cowspiracy, Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn, comes yet another excellent vegan documentary on Netflix. What The Health talks about the many benefits of having a plant-based diet and a cruelty-free lifestyle and eliminating animal products for optimal human health. The vegetarian documentary also tackles how big companies that claim to help us be healthy actually contribute to poisoning us. And the big question is: why? The answer is simply because of money, of course. What the Health resonated with me on my quest of spreading the word on the many health benefits of a plant-based diet. One of the most “must watch” Netflix vegan documentaries out there, in my opinion.
Forks over Knives
Duration: 1h 36m
Year Released:2011
Available on Netflix
There are a lot of vegan documentaries on Netflix, but Forks over Knives is one of those that gets mentioned often by vegans as one of those that have changed their lives. Forks over Knives explores how a plant-based diet can prevent and even eradicate chronic diseases like obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease chronic conditions, degenerative diseases, and certain types of cancer, as proven by scientific research. The documentary features researchers Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell (author of The China Study). Interviews with other VIPs, as well as monitoring the health status of real people, are also included. This one is less shocking to the eyes but still packs a punch at exposing our modern food system.
Blackfish
Duration: 1h 23m
Year Released: 2013
Available on Netflix
Aside from the vegan documentaries on Netflix that have been mentioned on this list, Blackfish is not about meat consumption but animal entertainment, specifically Seaworld. During a show at the Seaworld water amusement park in Florida, United States, Tilikum, a six-ton killer whale, fatally attacks Dawn Brancheau, an experienced trainer, right in front of spectators. If you thought veganism had to do mostly with our food choices, think again. There is unfortunately still so much animal exploitation on this planet, and Blackfish explores one very morbid example of it.
Speciesism: The Movie
Duration: 1h 34m
Year Released: 2013
Available on Vimeo
Once in a while, people with the determination to challenge the norms and ask questions most people are afraid to ask come about. Mark Devries is one of those people. Speciesism: The Movie documents how he investigates secluded factory farms with hidden cameras and uncovers the truths on how they mistreat animals. Devries asks some uncomfortable questions. For example: how strong are the reasons for believing that people have special moral values over animals? For those who are not familiar with what speciesism is, this film is the perfect introduction to the topic and some fantastic food for thought.
Food Inc.
Duration: 1h 34m
Year Released: 2008
Available on Daily Motion
In today’s modern world, we’re being non-stop bombarded by advertisements that promise total bullshit. To be specific, this is about, as you’d expect, the food industry. This is what Food Inc., one of the vegan documentaries available on Netflix tackles. Filmmaker Robert Kenner exposes the ill effects of a profit-driven food industry system on many things, including environmental organizations and health organizations. One takeaway we can all get from this is how we as consumers can be powerful if we get together and unite in fighting a corrupted system.
Okja
Duration: 2h
Year released: 2017
Available on Netflix
Not an actual documentary but more a movie about veganism in a kinda way. Okja movie tells the story of the daughter of a farmer and a pig named Okja. Above all, this is the story of the bond of friendship between them. Okja comes from a special breed of super-pigs created by the factory farming industry for slaughter and marketing. Speciesism or veganism are not directly addressed in the film, but it’s very easy to make a connection between the favorable place that certain animals occupy in the hearts of people (like dogs and cats) and the cruel treatment of several others (like pigs and cows). Cognitive dissonance is also one of the pillars of this nonetheless heart-warming film. Available on Netflix.