Beyond Pollution

The imagination of history in Ecuador never thought that oil, “its redeeming hope”, discovered in the Lago Agrio No. 1 well, was going to mean the beginning of the worst environmental catastrophe on the planet. Thirty years of operation and exploitation of the Texaco company, forever transformed the rivers and estuaries, the forests and the life of the indigenous communities in the northern Amazon of Ecuador.

The story of a little loggerhead turtle, as she follows in the path of her ancestors on one of the most extraordinary journeys in the natural world. Born on a beach in Florida, she rides the Gulf Stream up towards the Arctic and ultimately swims around the entire North Atlantic across to Africa and back to the beach where she was born. But the odds are stacked against her; just one in ten thousand turtles survive the journey.

HBO Documentary Films Presents the story of the effort to save the 895th surviving oiled pelican in Louisiana, showing how conservationists, government agencies and wildlife activists joined forces to preserve this one life.

This is a film about the response by a community to New Zealand’s largest environmental disaster, seen through the eyes of that community. The film captures the shock, anger and grief driven into the heart of the local community, but also the humour, purpose and overwhelming positivity when people join together with a common goal.

In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz, a supertanker loaded with 220,000 tons of petrol, ran aground in Brittany, France. The accident caused the biggest oil spill France has ever known and is still today known as one of the 20th century’s biggest ecological catastrophes. Forty years later, Loïck Peyron tries to understand how nature recovered from the disaster and what lessons were learned from it.

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The story of the 1996 Sea Empress oil spill off the Pembrokeshire coast, and how communities mobilised to respond to the disaster and protect their coastline.

On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in the pristine waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of Jacques Cousteau, takes us on a voyage to investigate first-hand the devastating impact of the U.S.'s largest oil spill. Amid the majestic mountains and ice floes of this serene setting, the leaking oil spreads like a virus staining and often killing everything it encounters. Harbor seals, sea otters, and bald eagles fall victim to the tragic accident.

There are ticking time bombs off the coasts of the world, of which the public has hardly been aware: 6,300 wrecks, sunk during the Second World War, have been rusting in the sea for more than 70 years. Researchers estimate the amount of oil remaining in them at up to 15 million tons. What can be done to prevent an oil slick?

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On December 15, 2024, the collision and sinking of two fuel oil tankers in the Kerch Strait caused one of the most devastating environmental disasters in the history of the Black Sea. Six months later, the tankers lying on the seabed are still leaking fuel oil, and of the thousands of volunteers who initially took part in the cleanup, only a few dozen remain along a 30-kilometer stretch of beach. The film was shot on the Taman Peninsula in early summer 2025, against the backdrop of a formally lifted, yet in reality already underway, beach season. In the face of scarce resources, the departure of their own leaders, and the daily release of fuel oil, the volunteers talk about themselves, rescue animals, combat the ignorance of those around them, and try to find the motivation to continue their fight against a disaster that at times seems endless.

West Coast of England, redshanks wander through wetlands in search of food while facing constant threats from loose dogs.

A story set on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded during April 2010 and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.

Stephen Fry loves Louisiana. Four months after the BP oil spill, dubbed the worst ecological disaster in the history of America, Fry returns to the Deep South together with zoologist Mark Carwardine, to see what the impact has been on the people, the vast wetlands and the species that live there. What they find both surprises and divides the travelling duo.

Aviator Jim Blaine and his brother Neil are rivals not only as daredevil flyers, but also for the love of parachutist Jill Collins.