The feel-good documentaries to add to your holiday watch list
This holiday season we can’t wait to snuggle up in our pajamas in front of an award-winning documentary or wintery movie. From our favorite hard-working bees and David Attenborough to penguins looking for love, here’s what we’ll be watching.
The Pollinators (2019) and WaterBear
Described as the ‘Netflix for nature’, WaterBear is the video-streaming platform for all your nature needs this holiday. Supported by more than 80 global NGOs including Greenpeace, WWF and Lonely Whale, it has a load of original content and award-winning documentaries focused on biodiversity, climate change, circularity and community. We recommend starting with The Pollinators, which examines the plight of bees, a concern close to our hearts.
Attenborough’s Life in Colour (2021)
Like us, Sir David Attenborough has long been fascinated by nature’s use of colour. He first conceived the idea of a documentary exploring the idea in the 1950s. However, as most screens were black and white then, the idea didn’t progress. Worth the wait, the 2021 BBC nature mini-series Life in Colour answers classic questions such as “why are tigers orange, zebras stripey and flamingos pink?”.
March of the Penguins (2005)
How far would you go to find love? This 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society, follows the gruelling annual trek by emperor penguins amid subfreezing temperatures and snowstorms in the Antarctic to find a mate.
Some more festive considerations:
• Frozen Planet (2011) nature documentary
• My Octopus Teacher (2020) nature documentary
• One Strange Rock (2018) nature documentary
• Frozen (2013) animated adventure
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) fantasy drama
• The Holiday (2006) romantic comedy
• Love Actually (2003) romantic comedy
• Home Alone (1990) family comedy