This post lists all the EA-relevant documentaries, movies, and TV series I've watched since learning about EA in 2017. This post is inspired by the list MichaelA made for EA-relevant books/audiobooks he found useful.
There’s also a similar list for EA-relevant podcasts and YouTube channels, but none yet for EA-relevant films/series (as far as I know). There was a post crowdsourcing for altruistic movie suggestions, but it only got a few answers, so I decided to make this list. (Lewis Bollard wrote a post though with documentaries on farm animal welfare.)
I’ve consumed a lot of EA-relevant books and podcast episodes, but I’ve also consumed ~30 documentaries, movies, or TV shows that have relevance to effective altruism and a cause or topic within it. For most of these, I specifically watched them because of their relevance to EA.
As such, I’m listing them all below, in roughly descending order of how useful I remember them being to me. For some of these, I include why I found them useful and/or entertaining.
I found out about these titles mainly through searching keywords on Netflix about each cause or topic (i.e. "artificial intelligence"), while a few were found by Googling "films about [insert cause/topic]".
I’ve included below what cause or topics each of these titles fall under. I also include a list at the bottom where I split these films by cause/topic, if you mainly care about watching films on a specific cause or topic.
Some of the films are put in more than one cause/topic.
Again, please comment below any films or shows I might have missed! I hope this list is useful for you. Maybe some of these films or shows can help you learn about an EA cause or topic in a more engaging way.
I have recently watched The Story of Louis Pasteur, a 1936 movie about, well, Louis Pasteur. I am not sure I recommend it artistically. It’s weirdly paced and its occasional gestures towards characterization only make it more obvious how much everyone in the story is a cardboard cutout. However, I have never seen a more effective altruist movie in my life.
A few additional EA-relevant Documentaries, movies, and TV shows:
Also, for what it's worth, I watched all of The Good Place and found it enjoyable, but below-average for comedies I watch (for my tastes) and not particularly thought-provoking.
I'm sure there are a number of interesting movies and documentaries on nuclear security.
Three movies that come to mind immediately:
President Ronald Reagan, a family friend of Lasker's, watched the film and discussed the plot with members of Congress,[2] his advisers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reagan's interest in the film is credited with leading to the enactment 18 months later of NSDD-145, the first Presidential directive on computer security.[3]
2. Stanley Kubrick's famous 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
3. Fail Safe, also from 1964, which I haven't seen.
As with all fiction, there is a danger that viewers consider them as realistic depictions of reality or plausible scenarios, which in fact they are clearly not, at least in their details (or, in the case of WarGames, regarding almost everything). They may still be educational or thought-provoking insofar that they all feature accidental nuclear war, which is a facet of risk some may not have considered.
Another relevant film is The Day After, which was seen by 100 million Americans—"the most-watched television film in the history of the medium" (Hänni 2016)— and was instrumental in changing Reagan’s nuclear policy.
Started watching Next. Think it's great and will recommend people watch it if they want to understand what the big deal is with AI safety/alignment. However, it's frustrating for UK viewers - Episodes 1-3 are available on Disney+, and Episodes 6-10 are available elsewhere, but where are episodes 4 & 5!? Will try YouTube TV with a VPN..
Thanks for this post!
I've often found collections like this really useful, and I think it's great when people notice that there isn't yet a collection of a particular type of thing and then just go make it themselves (rather than just thinking "hmm, someone should do that...").
And I also think it's great that you opened the post with a bunch of links to other somewhat related collections; I think that that sort of thing helps knit various parts of EA together in a useful way. In line with that, I've now added a link to this post from Where to find EA-related videos.
I wrote a bit about the TV show Dr. Stone in this context, which is especially relevant to global collapse and recovery. Other than that, Fantastic Planet comes to mind as a movie relevant to animal rights.
Threads (1984) is IMO the best movie I've seen that makes the emotional case for working on x-risk. Paints a realistic but extremely bleak picture of civilisational collapse following a nuclear war. Find reviews here.
Some have said its similar to The day after, which I haven't watched but also has good reviews.
A while back I compiled a list of great historical documentaries. To the degree that they are relevant to EA, they are so indirectly, and to different degrees, but the list may still be of interest. (Perhaps the most relevant items in the list are Cold War, the Connections series, and the documentaries on Petrov and Arkhipov.) I welcome further recommendations!
Additional animal welfare/plant-based food-related documentaries: Dominion, Unlocking the Cage, The Ghosts in Our Machine, Blackfish, The Cove, Food Inc., Vegucated, Cowspiracy, Seaspiracy (coming out soon), What the Health, Live and Let Live.
Of those, I've only seen Unlocking the Cage and Cowspiracy (which were fine) and Blackfish (which was very emotional).
From the trailer, Dominion looks like the most intense from a purely animal welfare perspective, especially if you're limiting to docs that include some content on factory farming.
I thought Seaspiracy was great - I started watching it without realising what it was, and it started with the filmmaker wanting to make a documentary about the oceans, then getting concerned about plastic waste (e.g. straws and bottles), and then it just kept going as he went down the rabbit hole. Seemed like a very EA kind of progression :)
Update: There is also now Meat Me Halfway
Seaspiracy is a great documentary. Truly shocking. I knew trillions marine animals are killed each year by fishing. But I did not realize the ocean may become empty in a few decades.
This is so excellent. Thank you :) Cannot wait to watch more of these. A strong endorsement from me on Pandemic, and Contagion! I wish they had done an accurate rendition of WorldWarZ it is such an amazing book!
Glad you liked the list Kathryn! :) I also like the movie World War Z, but I wasn't sure if it was EA-relevant enough to add it here. It could well be though. I also liked the Netflix show Into the Night, which is about a fictional x-risk event.
Will check some of these out. Not sure if this fits your criteria but a personal favourite is the documentary about Aaron Swartz.
Thank you for this list ! If you like TV series related to the pandemic topic, there is the russian serie "To the lake" (2019) on Netflix, where the characters are confronted to a lot of "what is the right thing to do" situations, due to a massive pandemic.
I really enjoyed the Channel 4 series Humans, and know at least one other EA who did. I thought it was one of the best representations of the questions around the potential rights of artificial sentience I'd seen within fiction.