Movies like Mother Earth (1991)
The best movies like Mother Earth (1991) are Leviathan (2013), My Beautiful Broken Brain (2014) and In the Realms of the Unreal (2004). If Mother Earth hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKoyaanisqatsi (1983)7.9/10 from 814 votes
- NewestA Toxic Love Story (2026)Released 2026
Leviathan (2013)
An experimental portrait of the North American commercial fishing industry through the lens of GoPro cameras placed on a fishing vessel off the coast of New England.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Beautiful Broken Brain (2014)
A profoundly personal voyage into the complexity, fragility and wonder of the human brain, after Lotje Sodderland miraculously survives a hemorrhagic stroke and finds herself starting again in an alien world, bereft of language and logic. This feature documentary takes us on a genre-twisting tale that is by turns excruciating and exquisite - from the devastating consequences of a first-time neurological experiment, through to the extraordinary revelations of her altered sensory perception.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAquaman: Heroines of Atlantis (2019)
Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman discuss their characters Mera and Atlanna.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNaqoyqatsi (2002)
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPowaqqatsi (1988)
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCameraperson (2016)
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Toxic Love Story (2026)
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtremis (2016)
A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFeminists: What Were They Thinking? (2018)
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisS4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026)
Over 35 years after Bob Lazar's revelations, this documentary exposes secrets of a facility the government still denies. Featuring Lazar's testimony, recreations, and new evidence, it reopens a case that continues to spark global curiosity
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElstree 1976 (2015)
A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKoyaanisqatsi (1983)
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRBG (2018)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMission Blue (2014)
This documentary follows oceanographer Sylvia Earle's campaign to save the world's oceans from threats such as overfishing and toxic waste.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShe's Beautiful When She's Angry (2014)
A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl Model (2011)
A documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTyphoid Mary (1993)
Story of Mary Mallon. Typhoid fever carrier
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Lessons for Zafirah (2011)
A metaphor of the Flood in our times, The Flood is the rain of violence that washes over us. Noah´s Ark is the train that runs through Mexico toward the United States and migrants are the species attempting to save their lives. For the directors, cinema moves people not just by condemnation, but by confronting and fostering emotions which lead to new, constructive ideas. This documentary became a cinematographic diary for their first viewer, their three-year-old daughter, Zafirah.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Dominguinhos (2014)
Through rare and precious footages and gigs with great artists such as Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Hermeto Pascoal, Djavan, Nara Leao, Luiz Gonzaga, among many others, "Dominguinhos" reveals this genius of Brazilian music, creator of a deeply authentic, universal and contemporary work. The film values the sensory cinematic experience, a journey driven by Dominguinhos his own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Blindsight (2006)
Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide (1971)
A documentary on the massacre of Planas in the Colombian east plains in 1970. An Indigenous community formed a cooperative to defend their rights from settlers and colonists, but the government organized a military operation to protect the latter and foreign companies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Domino Effect (2014)
Rafael - the minister of sports of an unrecognized country, and Natasha - a Russian opera singer, try living together in Abkhazia - a war-torn future-less country. Observing their difficult relations, we see life in a place marked by war and nationalism. The film portrays trapped people dreaming of peace, normality and happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
My Grandmother’s Sketchbook: Under Mont Blanc (2026)
A 30-year-old sketchbook leads Max Romey to the Mont Blanc region. The Alaska-based watercolor artist and environmental advocate sets out to follow in the footsteps of his grandmother, who visited this landscape in the late 1990s and captured it in dozens of drawings. With mountain guide Hillary Gerardi, Max attempts to locate each sketch’s exact origin point. Many match perfectly—until the Mer de Glace throws him off course. The glacier has changed too much in 30 years to recognize.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Coming SoonMovies like thisThe Yes Men (2003)
A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization (WTO) on television and at business conferences around the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSex, Lies & Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story (2015)
Sex, Lies and Love Bites The Agony Aunt Story, presented by psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry, is a witty and revealing look at the problem page's enduring appeal. In the documentary Philippa picks her way through three centuries of advice on broken hearts, cheating partners and adolescent angst to uncover a fascinating portrait of our social history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
I'm Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986)
This video work was made while Rist was still an art student at the School of Design in Basel, Switzerland. It was produced in an unlimited edition and is intended to be shown on a domestic-style monitor, although it may also be displayed as a projection with special permission from the artist. The video depicts the artist, an attractive young woman dancing manically around the room while repeatedly singing ‘I’m not the girl who misses much’. The phrase is an adaptation of the first line of the Beatles song ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun'. Referring to her childhood Rist has said, ‘In my village in Switzerland I had a small window on the art world through the mass media; through John Lennon/Yoko Ono I moved from pop music to contemporary art. In return, I will always be grateful to popular culture’ (quoted in ‘I rist, you rist, she rists, he rists, we rist, you rist, they rist, tourist: Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Pipilotti Rist’, Pipilotti Rist, p.16).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Mother Earth?
The closest matches to Mother Earth are Leviathan (2013), My Beautiful Broken Brain (2014) and In the Realms of the Unreal (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Mother Earth?
Start with Leviathan (2013), the closest match to Mother Earth.
What is the highest-rated movie like Mother Earth?
Koyaanisqatsi (1983), rated 7.9/10 by 814 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Mother Earth?
A Toxic Love Story (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Mother Earth?
Yes: Leviathan (2013), My Beautiful Broken Brain (2014) and In the Realms of the Unreal (2004).
How are movies similar to Mother Earth chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Mother Earth, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.