Inspiration is just a click away, thanks to this list of documentaries being released this fall. Travel around the globe with these daring activists and entrepreneurs. Get ready to walk in their shoes, or, in one case, ride on their saddles. It’s a big world out there.
1. He Named Me Malala
In 2012, the Taliban shot then 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai for promoting women’s education in Pakistan. After a miraculous recovery, Malala is now an internationally renowned activist and speaker for children’s rights around the world. He Named Me Malala is a stirring look into who Malala is, and who doesn’t want to know more about this fascinating young woman?
2. Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, before being forced out in 1985. Then he returned in 1997 to transform Apple into one of the most iconic companies in history. From Alex Gibney, the award-winning director of eye-opening Scientology documentary Going Clear, comes Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. Take an inside look not only at the formation of Apple, but the beginning of a worldwide technological empire.
3. All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records
Before falling to bankruptcy in 2006, the famed music store chain Tower Records was the go-to place for music fans around the world. Follow along with founder Russell Solomon as he narrates All Things Must Pass, diving into the intricacies of this entrepreneurial pursuit.
4. This Changes Everything
Based on the bestselling book by Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything explores the effects of climate change, as told by the people who experience it firsthand. From a wetland-destroying coal plant in India to mining and drilling projects that threaten Greece’s mountains and seas, this documentary traverses the world. Filmmaker Avi Lewis brings in a variety of perspectives and situations to humanize the science and politics of climate change.
5. A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story
Lizzie Velasquez was born with a rare condition that prevents her from gaining weight. After suffering from years of cyberbullying, Velasquez is now an anti-bullying activist and motivational speaker. Follow Velasquez’s incredible story in A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story, as the film takes you from her childhood and being labeled “The World’s Ugliest Woman” to now, as she lobbies for the first anti-bullying law in the United States.
6. Unbranded
About 50,000 unwanted wild horses and burros are stuck in government facilities, and Ben Masters decided to do something about it. Enlisting three other riders, Masters rode horses from the Mexican border to Canada to raise awareness for those horses, hoping to find permanent homes for them. Ride along for a lively journey through the country in Unbranded.
7. How to Change the World
They started in a fishing boat from Vancouver en route to Amchitka, an island near Alaska. Meet the group of activists who stopped former president Nixon’s 1971 atomic bomb tests. They would eventually found Greenpeace, the international environmental advocacy organization chronicled in How to Change the World.
Photo credit: Ben Masters/Flickr