We’ve all seen The Road and Jericho. Here are some maybe you haven’t seen. A couple are free to watch on Youtube. A couple are very survivalist oriented and the others are collapse oriented.
Surviving in a Post-apocalyptic Environment
Pretty great little film for a short. Shows the darker realities of a collapse scenario. Full version available on Youtube.
His older brother needs him to grow up, but Jem just wants to be a kid. As they struggle to survive in a new, predatory ice age, two brothers wrestle with their responsibilities and with each other, and learn what it means to call a place home.
Surviving Progress
“Progress traps” is probably the most interesting concept this collapse-predicting documentary puts forth.
Humanity’s ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, A Short History Of Progress inspired SURVIVING PROGRESS, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by “progress traps” - alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world’s resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap? With potent images and illuminating insights from thinkers who have probed our genes, our brains, and our social behaviour, this requiem to progress-as-usual also poses a challenge: to prove that making apes smarter isn’t an evolutionary dead-end.
American Blackout
National Geographic put out a neat little realism-heavy film that depicts a grid down scenario from the viewpoints of characters from dramatically different lives and social classes.
A cyber-attack takes down the grid and leaves millions of ordinary people without electricity. Follow the first-hand stories of five different groups stranded in the darkness as their desperate scenarios unfold. What happens when the lights go out? How long would it take for civilization to crumble?
When the Yogurt Took Over - Love, Death & Robots S01E06
The shortest episode of the season for this incredible Animatrix-esque animated series. A sentient, superintelligent yogurt becomes the single decision-making authority of the United States while taking up residence in Ohio. Can be found on Netflix.
Contagion
If you were ever wondering about how bad an outbreak like SARS or Wuhan Coronavirus could get, this film has excellent scientific detail. Exciting first half, somewhat disappointing ending. Worth it if you’re curious on the subject of biological catastrophe, particularly in the realm of stuff you might find in a biosafety level 4 lab.
